The River Reporter
Thursday, April 8, 1999

The right to assemble

A small group of men and women stood before a village justice in Monticello this week, charged with disorderly conduct At this writing, the outcome of that court appearanee is unknown. My personal opinion of the matter with which they are charged is not a factor in writing this column. Frankly I am not entirely in sympathy with the issues which they espouse but this does not diminish the importance of what is happening here.

This is not a case of disorderly conduct by participating in a brawl in some bar room, or playing the radio too loudly during the night. What is at issue here is something which reflects on the Bill of Rights, those basic freedoms which make this country what it is.

For the record, lets take a look at what the first amendment of our constitution says:

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the fight of the people peaceably to assemble and to petition the government a redress of grievances."

Simple, isn't it? Yet people throughout our history have given their "last full measure of devotion" so that this nation shall remain the "land of the free and the home of the brave."

Starting at the bridge in Concord, Massachusetts in 1775, brave Americans stood ready to defend those fights which we accept so casually today -- "Here the embattled farmers stood, and fired the shot heard 'round the world."

From many graves where American men and women lie, defenders of our basic freedoms, a mystic bond binds us to those simple truths which make us all proud to be an American. From the Arctic waters of the Aleutians to the steaming jungles of Viet Nam, from places with homey American names such as Lick Skillet Road to such exotic names as Guadacanal, Americans have stood their ground to make sure that "we hold these truths to be self evident."

Perhaps I am making too much of this incident in Monticello. Perhaps. But if we ignore these basic truths became they may be minor, then who will defend us when things turn major?

Somewhere wise old Benjamin Franklin remarked that a country is not devoured in one big gulp, but rather nibbled away at the edges like a big johnny-cake until it is all gone.

What you or I may think of the underlying reason for the protest is not relevant here This particular matter does, however, concern all of us. Does a citizen of this, the greatest country in all the world, have a right to express an opinion which may differ from what the government proposes?

The village of Monticello has already ridden roughshod over the residents of that particular jurisdiction by changing officials around in different positions, and appointing certain members of the government without allowing the citizens to vote for them. How much further will the people of Monticello be denied their rights under the law?

That great statesman Edmund Burke said in 1795, "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."