Taking Our Right to Speak Freely for Granted |
When I lived in the Washington, D.C., region, I enjoyed occasional Saturday morning visits to Lafayette Square to see what the protesters were up to.
Lafayette Square sits directly across Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House. The park is often packed with people exercising their right to free speech.
The Saturday morning I visited, a large group of hispanic protesters was demanding “living wages,” acceptance of bilingual education and amnesty for illegal immigrants.
A dozen other protesters stood on the other side of Pennsylvania Avenue. They called themselves “Freepers,” for “freedom protesters.” Each became a Freeper through FreeRepublic.com, an online forum for independent grassroots conservatives working to roll back decades of government overreach and to root out fraud and corruption.
Crossing back over Pennsylvania Avenue to talk with anti-nuclear-weapons activists, I was almost knocked over by a roller-hockey player. Two games were going on amid tourists and protesters, but the Park Police didn’t care; hockey players have as much right to the park area as any other American citizens do.
Between two........