Amendment One: “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 right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
Perhaps one of the most oft-cited, the first amendment actually addresses three issues which the founders saw as foundational to the creation of a democratic nation. First, that there be no state religion, nor any law regulating the worship of whatever the hell you choose to deify. Second, it grants the almighty freedom of speech, going so far as to specifically extend that to a free press. Finally, they make it perfectly legal to assemble peacefully in order to protest, both in general and, maybe more importantly, in order to air grievances towards the government. Let’s tackle these one at a time.
Religion. It’s a word that tends to evoke in the minds of the average American any number of kneejerk reactions, ranging from pride and anger to cynicism and mistrust. It’s become a huge national issue and a major campaigning ground for politicians in the last few elections, with more and more of them petitioning directly and openly to congregations across the nation, guaranteeing that they will, if elected, uphold the good, moral Christian traditions upon which our nation was founded.
There’s a small problem with that logic. Well, two, really. First, the country wasn’t founded on the basis of any religion whatsoever, given that many of the founding fathers were either deists, agnostics or atheists. Just glancing over The Bill of Rights with even a basic knowledge of Judeo-Christian scripture, you can quickly see that they seemed to go out of their way not to address the topic at all, except to say that it has no place being regulated by the government. That’s because of the second problem.
In a representative democracy, unless there is a state religion to which every single member wholeheartedly subscribes, a representative of the people, by advocating a single religion’s moral code, denies the Americans who don’t follow that belief system a voice in their government. And yes, it IS that big a deal. Imagine for a moment, before getting all righteously indignant about how it’s okay because the majority of Americans are Christian, if you woke up tomorrow and the majority were Muslim or Hindi or Jewish. Would you still be okay with having the laws made in order to accommodate those belief systems? Probably not. And the founding fathers of this great nation felt the exact same way, hence the separation of church and state.
Finally, they stuck in there, because a lot of this country came over in order to escape the kind of religion persecution that we’re seeing more and more frequently in our world these days, that you can worship whomever and however you want. And that means everyone, as long as it isn’t causing direct harm to someone else, thus violating the whole, life, liberty and property bit. So if you want to worship your cat, go for it. An alien overlord? We got you covered. Wanna be a Jedi? Get in line. And, best of all, it’s all protected. Oh, and for those of you scoffing at the idea of any of those things, go back and take a good hard look at your own doctrines and tell me where it says you should damn others, rather than be open and loving and accepting of all mankind.
But, if you’ve done so and you still feel like telling me that I’m a monstrous heathen who will, upon dying, be raped a thousand times over by the massively-endowed demons of a fiery hell, go right ahead. Because they’ve got you covered there, too. As long as you aren’t outright lying, you’re allowed to say whatever it is you want, in whatever form you choose. That’s called the freedom of speech and it’s what lets me publish this essay in a place where anyone who wants can read it and, because not every country allows it, keeps my aunt in China from being able to access it.
From the founding of the written word, those in charge have understood just how powerful it can be. It’s why most cultures that have had a regimented class system (including slavery here in the good old U.S.A.) often made literacy a crime punishable by death for those on the lowest, and often by far the largest, tier of society. Reading expands the mind by exposing it to new ideas and viewpoints and, after the invention of mass media, allowed for the widespread dissemination of ideas and ideologies that helped to gain support for some of the most sweeping changes this country has ever known, starting with its inception and continuing through the civil rights movement and beyond.
The founders got that and it’s why the reason many see the right to free speech as the most farsighted of the amendments. It literally gave every American a voice. Had they been able to foresee a time when the average American had voluntarily given up reason, one of the things which they found paramount to freedom, out of sheer laziness, they may have neglected to include the next bit, freedom of the press.
They couldn’t have seen things like radio and television coming, nor that these would devolve into the platforms for the incredibly divisive, often hated-filled rhetoric that’s become increasingly common these days. When they laid down the freedom of the press, they assumed that the country, given access to things like public education, would naturally grow into a more reasoned, rational society. Were that the case, a free press would be a boon and a blessing, ferreting out corruption before it could take hold. Unfortunately, it hasn’t quite played out that way.
These days, when an increasing majority of the country not only identifies itself as, “not really much of a reader,” but has been encouraged to do so by the subtle, insidious vilification of the intellectual (even nerds are cool now, but only if they’re into computers, not books), the free press may be doing more harm than good, solely because it is no longer a free press, but rather a mouthpiece of large corporations who own the major outlets and have control over the message. The internet is the last true bastion of the golden dream of the founding fathers, a place where every whacko can share their ideas and, every now and then, actually make themselves heard.
While it is most certainly true that a free press is necessary for democracy, being that it’s how the citizens are given access to the information needed to make informed decisions come elections day, it remains to be seen whether we will ever reach a point where it truly exists again in this country.
Finally, we were granted the right to assemble, peacefully, in order to show our unhappiness with the status quo. We too often take this for granted, though it has been, and continues to be, the backbone of the greatest changes this nation has ever known. So many these days are screaming for change, but seem unwilling to take to the streets, to assemble and march, to make themselves heard. The founding fathers understood that we needed to be able to do that, mostly because when they went out and did it, they were shot at, tarred and feathered or strung up for treason.
They therefore made absolutely certain that never again would Americans be unable to gather to voice their opinions, even ones that not every liked (thanks again, freedom of speech). In the last decade or so, however, we’ve allowed ourselves to slowly lose that right, beginning with the creation of “freedom zones,” which designated only certain areas okay for public protest, almost always out of the line of the press and well out of earshot of the politicians and corporate moguls who were enacting the very things being protested. It’s the contemporary equivalent of walling off the peasantry so that the aristocracy didn’t have to, you know, see them or be bothered knowing they were there.
The key point of that last part, and the one that rings throughout this amendment and, in spirit, the entire Bill of Rights is this. We, as Americans, have been blessed to be born in a country where we do, truly, have the power to change things. If you doubt that, look around. Sixty years ago, there wouldn’t be any minorities at the polls com November. A little further back and there wouldn’t be any women. Go even further and it’s likely that you and your kids would be working in sweat shops, perpetually indebted to its owners as wage slaves. Or, perhaps worst of all, we wouldn’t even be Americans.
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