I'm still working on this, but decided to post it anyway so no one can accuse me of slacking or missing a day. :)
First Amendment
Who gets to decide the
Best practice for protesting?
Best practice for judging a protest?
Best practice for exercising free speech?
Best practice for deciding when free speech goes too far?
Judges,
in a court of law,
if it gets that far.
Who gets to have an opinion
on all of the above?
All of us.
How loud can we get?
How personal?
How vicious?
We go as far as we can
because we all have the freedom
to voice our opinion.
Freedom to speak,
Guaranteed by the First Amendment.
The wording is a bit funky,
Old-fashioned terminology and phrasing.
Congress shall make no law ABRIDGING
The freedom of speech,
Or of the press,
Or the right of the people peaceably to assemble.
Knowing that we have the right to speak out
is not the same as knowing when or how
to do it effectively.
Do most of us speak out publicly?
No.
But those who do seem fearless
to those of us who prefer to watch from the sidelines.
Sometimes those who speak out
May seem crazy,
Over zealous,
Maniacal
To those of us who choose to remain
Silent.
Spectators.
Judging.
We may be
Self conscious
Undecided
Private.
But in the privacy of our home
at a keyboard
where no one can see us,
We can voice
Opinions.
We state
Facts as we know them.
We repeat
Hearsay.
We are ruled by our
Emotions.
And we criticize
the other side
Because we don’t think they are on our side.
The irony is,
Most of us want the same thing,
To be happy, fulfilled, safe.
And if we fear something will disrupt our perfect world,
We are not happy.
We don't feel fulfilled.
We don't feel safe.
We might get a little angry,
We might get a littler vengeful,
We might get a little vocal,
We might, we might, we might
Go too far.
And it is our right to go as far as we want to
By speaking
By writing
By marching
By demonstrating our feelings and beliefs.
Freedom of speech
Freedom to assemble
Freedom to disagree
Freedom to agree
Freedom to ignore
Freedom to get involved
Free, free, free,
We live in the land of the free.
