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.
— First Amendment to the United States Constitution

We’ve seen and heard arguments from those who interpret the First Amendment to suit their immediate desires but I don’t look between the lines as there’s never anything there.

The First Amendment allows for freedom of speech. I’ve always disagreed with the conditions some readily quote like shouting fire in a crowded theater. You can do it. You just have to be ready to accept the consequences, which is obviously problematic to those who want limited responsibility for those actions.

Whether it be on a street, highway, or college campus, a growing segment of our population believes they not only have the right to say what they want and because of where they’ve strategically decided to say it, but they also have the right to be heard.

I don’t see that right in any of our Constitutional amendments.

When the Tea Party held their many events across the United States, they first applied for and obtained a permit. They held their event in a static place so people had the choice to attend and hear speakers exercising their First Amendment right of speech. Police were in attendance due to the size of the gatherings, and almost all were relaxed as those in attendance were appreciative of them and their service. Permits for Tea Party events appear to have been issued with relative ease as the reputation was the areas used were normally left cleaner than when the group first arrived. Attendees did not routinely vandalize or destroy surrounding public, private property and businesses.

Speakers at Tea Party events enjoyed the right to speak and did not force anyone to hear their words.

For the last decade or so, left wing groups seldom acquire permits for their “events”, and I use that term loosely.

They exploit any opportunity to take to the streets, disrupt the free flow of traffic on our highways because it’s loosely illegal.

The better to secure and perpetuate mutual friendship and intercourse among the people of the different States in this Union, the free inhabitants … of each State shall free ingress and regress to and from any other State.
— Articles of Confederation, Article 4

The Founders thought our right to freedom of movement so obvious, they didn’t bother adding it to the Constitution. The informal education system was better then than today’s taxpayer-funded abomination so the obvious didn’t require dumbing down. We can be detained and even arrested for walking in the middle of the road but if it’s a “protest” and it’s “free speech”, you get some leeway?

The left considers their modern mode of free speech via disruption as the “right of the people to peaceably assemble”. They obviously have no permit to block traffic and yet get in the faces of captive motorists and demand they listen to their message. Maybe that’s “mostly peaceably”.

The same now can be said as to their activities on college campuses. They take over large areas, decide who can and cannot be admitted to facilities, and force all in the area to listen to what they have to say. Their areas are routinely left in a more disheveled condition than when originally occupied, surrounding buildings and statues are vandalized and sometimes local areas experience disruptions in commerce, if not also damage to property. Let’s not leave out violence than can lead to injury and/or death.

And when it all gets ugly and fingers are pointed, we’re all told it’s a free speech issue.

It is not.

In this case, all of these protesters can call for the divestment from Israel, issue death threats, hurl racial slurs at a black congressman, and more. Those involved believe that their abhorrent words are justified and they should be able to say them. I agree as we should know what’s in their little heads.

But what really pisses them off is that our ability to ignore nullifies their speech. In this case, we can blow their words off as the sophistry of the young, uninformed and duped. If they don’t even know what they’re protesting, there’s no reason to succumb to demands. That would be dumb.

Until there’s a Constitutional Amendment forcing The People to have to hear the words of others (which would be kind of interesting to enforce), the children will have to scream until they’re hoarse.

Then again they’d go full Clockwork Orange on their opponents if they could force us to see and hear them at their worse.

I’ll preface my commentary with the obvious: All of the “mostly peaceful” protests by our “college educated” on campuses nationwide that are clearly pro-Hamas and aimed at Jewish students are wrong, illegal, and all involved should either go back to the classes their parents and taxpayers are funding or be arrested and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

But why the sudden sanctimonious outrage from the media and pundit class, billionaire donors, business leaders, and politicians? Why are the harassment and threats against Jewish students a red line that’s been crossed and now found to be totally unacceptable? It’s only because the current violence hits too close to home.

Several major donors have called a hard stop to their past donations:

New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, a Columbia graduate, said he was stopping donations immediately and charged the college with failing to keep its Jewish students safe. Billionaire investor Leon Cooperman, a business school graduate, said he would stick with a stop on donations which began shortly after the October 7 Hamas massacres. Cooperman, industrialist Len Blavatnik and Kraft have donated nearly $100 million in total to Columbia, according to some estimates — money that has created multiple buildings on campus, scholarships for engineers, and a center for Jewish students.
— New York Post, 4/22/24

These opportunistic hand-wringers are hardly consistent.

After Eric Garner’s death in 2014 death and Freddie Gray’s in 2015, college students eagerly joined the burgeoning #BlackLivesMatter #DefundThePolice movements. Permitless street protests started becoming a new norm where traffic was strategically snarled, and thousands of commuters were held hostage to those who believed they could demand to be heard at the inconvenience of others.

Many of those protests resulted in millions of dollars of public and private property damage, looting of businesses, and burning of buildings and homes in predominantly black neighborhoods. Still, we were all told to deal with it because protesters were exercising their right to free speech.

Arrests and prosecutions were minimal, and the few charged were dismissed.

Those protests also resulted in compliant progressive local legislatures beginning to actually defund their law enforcement agencies, resulting in unsafe streets for citizens and the assassination of police officers nationwide. The negative ramifications to public safety felt since have been profound.

After President Donald Trump’s 2016 election, students from high school through college were encouraged to leave campuses and take to the streets, again without permits, and to disrupt traffic, again resulting in the expected public and private property damage. The outrage from those with influence was minimal because the protesters were exercising their right to free speech.

Arrests and prosecutions were minimal, and the few charged were dismissed.

After George Floyd’s death in 2020 (and too many still don’t know that the actual cause was self-inflicted), tens of thousands of protesters, including college students, took to highways and streets for the summer, causing intentional disruptions for thousands of commuters, damaging and/or destroying hundreds of public and private buildings, attacking law enforcement, burning and looting businesses and homes, primarily in black neighborhoods. Once again, the American people were told to suck it up because the protesters were exercising their right to free speech.

Arrests and prosecutions were minimal and the few charges were dismissed.

Many politicians embraced, encouraged and rewarded the tumult.

Conservatives have been met with threats and eventual violence after being invited to speak on college campuses for many years, but the outrage was minimal and we were told to suck it up because the protesters were exercising their right to free speech.

Arrests and prosecutions were minimal and the few charges were dismissed.

Female activists have been met with threats and eventual violence after being invited to speak on college campuses against the unfair and dangerous incursion of transgender athletes into their sports. The outrage was minimal and the women were told to suck it up because the protesters were exercising their right to free speech.

Arrests and prosecutions were minimal and the few charges were dismissed.

It could be argued if those now expressing their outrage had stepped in and efficiently cracked down on the illegal street takeovers and protests back in 2014, the red line between common decency and anarchy would not have been crossed. In almost every case, college students contributed to the ranks of unruly protesters, participated in the mayhem, destruction and afterward returned to the safety and warmth of their dorms or homes.

Almost all of the pundits on the left and the news networks gave aid and comfort to the violent protesters by labeling them as #MostlyPeaceful despite the clear optics to the contrary.

Almost all of those who donate hefty sums to colleges and universities and are quite vocal today forced their businesses to fully embrace the #BlackLivesMatter grift, despite the internal rifts that would be caused.

Don’t hold your breath waiting for Robert Kraft and others to admit their error in judgment and apologize to the many Americans who’ve been casualties of crime because the police couldn’t come when needed.

There was no legislation introduced on Capitol Hill offered to outlaw the activities of #Antifa and other anarchists whose sole mission was to exploit grievances as an excuse to commit acts of destruction; maybe because some of the protesters are relatives of those same legislators.

All of the protests, excused and/or applauded by the left, resulted in hundreds of injuries and death. Those lives didn’t matter and have been forgotten by all those now belatedly expressing horror and outrage.

And who are Ivy League college presidents and administrators now calling to quell unruly antisemitic students and outside agitators? Ah yes, the very police they had no problem smearing, defunding and/or removing from their campus safe spaces, acquiescing to activists and radicals. Funny how irony inconveniences the small college-educated mind.

The threats and violence against Jewish students on college campuses and street/highway takeovers by the pro-Hamas-indoctrinated are the direct result of not shutting down misguided and illegal student-fueled protests ten years ago. It’s shameful that it took a decade of this societal breakdown and violence before wealthy Jewish donors finally woke up to the fact that it was always going to end with attacks on the Jews.

The toothpaste is out of the tube.