1st Amendement guarantee and some passing thoughts from the last few days

[ThomWV]

You gotta love the 1st Amendment to the Constitution. "That the one that 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 right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." Set the economy aside for a moment and that one long sentence explains a lot of what we are as a nation. What you see up there are the makings of a free people, if they will use it.

I think the things people do have inertia. By that I mean that there are things that people will naturally do for as long as their are people unless some outside force acts on them to make them slow down or stop. Its an example of that that I've been thinking about for the last few days and coincidentally - or maybe not - its one of those natural things that the Constitution guarantees. Its that freedom to peaceably assemble that's been on my mind.

Back when I was a younger person protests abounded. Bras, flags and cities were being burned (that last not an example of peacefully assembling, I know) and there were daily protests agains my generation's war. But today you don't see anyone protesting anything. You can not imagine how odd that seems to this old bird. Depending on who's count you trust we have between one and five wars going on right now - and not a protester in sight. We have economic woes surpassed only by the Great Depression caused by open theft for which there seems to be no legal remedy that the Government will pursue - and not a protester in sight. We have a Rump Congress that not only doesn't represent the interests of the people in preference for ethereal corporate entities - and not a protester in sight. What were once City and Community hospitals are now privately owned and in it for profit rather than the best possible care of patients - and not a protester in sight. It would be easier to find a potato sculp in gold that a job in some parts of the country - and not a .... And on and on and on.

People used to get out into the streets and protest the misdeeds done against them, there was real fire in the country. And now its gone. So, what happened? Is it because there press no longer covers it when we go out and demand better treatment - have we become so narcissistic that we won't go out and take action unless someone takes our picture doing it? Is it because we fear being brutalized by our own police? Just what is it that interrupted the inertia of the people? What is stopping us from getting and demanding what is rightfully ours, demanding justice and enforcement of law, demanding equality no matter how we are distinguished?