The First Amendment

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

This is the first amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America. I believe in this wholeheartedly, as I believe in the rest of the Constitution. I love this crazy, messed up, country that I live in and am glad I was not born anywhere else.

On Facebook recently many people have had this as their status:

So the US Supreme Court has ruled that you have the right under the First Amendment to protest military funerals. I invite you to start your protest in my front yard and we can see if your First amendment is better than my Second Amendment. Feel free to re-post if you feel the same.


Now lets think about this for a minute. Is it really smart to pit one amendment against another? The whole reason for the amendments is so that we can supposedly live in a more peaceful country. The amendments where made in hopes of the Constitution always being relevant and people to be able to live peacefully in the land of the free and the home of the brave.

Unfortunately, very unfortunately, the Court made the right decision. People should be allowed to protest. No matter what it  is, they should be allowed to peacefully protest. Whether it be at O.J. Simpson's trial, abortion clinics, Gay rights rallies, even Military funerals. It is part of our rights as US citizens. Even though we do not always agree with what the other side is saying or how they feel, they have a right to say it and feel it.

However, The Supreme Court completely ignored a small, yet very important part of the entire amendment. THE RIGHT TO PEACEABLY ASSEMBLE!
You see when those people are protesting at military funerals, there is nothing peaceful about it. They yell, scream, throw things, start fights, and are pretty much just being horrible people. If all the people where doing was standing outside the gates of the cemetary and holding up signs, that would be one thing. Those people don't just stand outside the gates though. I am wondering if one of the justices had a family member in the military that died, how would they feel about someone screaming and throwing things at them as they are trying to lay their loved one to rest??? I know that if I were ever at a military funeral and someone started screaming at me about my family member, I would probably go to jail. There is not a doubt in my mind that if those protesters were at my Uncle Joe's funeral, I would still be in jail to this day.

So the next question is, where exactly do you draw the line? When do authorities step in and say, "hey, this person died for you to have the right to protest, we are not going to let you trample on their grave!"? What happens when the people who are protesting the protesters start showing up? This could get really ugly, really fast. I would never want the Supreme Court to go against the Constitution, but I do think that there may need to be an amendment to the amendments. I mean the people who wrote the constitution, did so in a way to make it adaptable for many many years to come. Here we are almost 235 years later and we still refer to it on a daily basis. We still rely on it when our country goes to war, picks a president, has questions about a citizens rights!! Hell yes we should have freedom of speech, hell yes we should be able to own guns! Those people and many people like them should be able to protest and state their ignorant view all they want. They should not, however, be allowed to trample on the very reason why they are able to express their stupidity. We can't make an exception for military funerals. We should be able to enforce the "peaceably" part of the amendment though.

What if, just what if we make a new amendment?? One that states, "Once you stop being peaceful, once you yell and scream and throw things, you are no longer allowed to express your first amendment right. Your organization will be shut down. You have given up your right!". No more military funeral protests, no more KKK rallies, no more standing outside of court rooms yelling about homosexuality being wrong.

My point is this: Did the Supreme Court make the right decision? Yes. Did they ignore a key part of the first amendment by allowing the people to protest at military funerals? Yes. They have been ignoring this key element for many many years. I really think that once you stop being peaceful while protesting, you have given up your first amendment right.

Just to clarify I DO NOT IN ANY WAY SHAPE OR FORM AGREE WITH THE PEOPLE WHO PROTEST MILITARY FUNERALS!!!!!! I AGREE WITH THEIR RIGHT TO DO SO AS LONG AS IT IS PEACEFUL AND THEY REMAIN A GOOD DISTANCE AWAY FROM FRIENDS AND FAMILY IN MOURNING!!!!

As John Lennon once said, "all we are saying, is give peace a chance."