(CNN) – “An unconditional right to say what one pleases about public affairs is what I consider to be the minimum guarantee of the First Amendment.” — U.S. Supreme Court Justice Hugo L. Black, New York Times Co. vs. Sullivan, 1964
It’s downright disgusting to listen to conservative and Republican lawmakers, presidential candidates, business owners and media commentators use such vitriol to describe the Occupy Wall Street protesters as hell-bent on destroying America.
How in the world can anyone even form their lips to say such a thing when this very country was founded on the basis of dissent?
Self-professed rodeo clown Glenn Beck castigates the Occupy Wall Street protesters, but he’s always running off at the mouth about the Founding Fathers and how brilliant they were.
Without dissent and protest, there is no United States of America! It’s as if these folks never picked up a history book to understand how this nation was formed. The very notion of a United States of America started with someone saying, writing and screaming, “Enough is enough!” And when more and more of the early settlers became enraged at the heavy-handed actions of the British, that’s when we were on our path to the American Revolution.
