“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.”
— The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
The rights enshrined in the First Amendment are fundamental cornerstones for this country. So every now and then it’s worth re-examining its essential message to make sure those rights are protected for every American citizen for as long as this country exists.
And no better time. This week, Sept. 17-23, is Constitution Week. As fate would have it, a local story broke just last week that prompted a healthy discussion about the First Amendment, its protections, and its limits.
The chair of the Haywood County Republican Party, Kim Genova, fellow Republican activist Kathy Yurksaitis Forrestal, and a third speaker, David Henderson, went to a Haywood County Commissioners’ meeting a couple of weeks ago to complain about the weekly protests in front of the courthouse by the Hands Off Haywood organization, according to a thorough account of the meeting published by The Mountaineer.
The Hands Off Haywood gatherings are anti-Trump for the most part, people getting out and letting others know that they vehemently disagree with his antics and actions, and those who show up each Saturday say they are worried about the future of the country. So they make the effort to gather in front of the courthouse with signs to show their feelings about the current administration.
More importantly, they have a permit and have their own guidelines that they follow to avoid confrontation and to de-escalate any potential situations. The gatherings have been happening for 18 months, and so far, law enforcement officials say there have been zero issues.
In other words, these people are practicing a cherished American tradition, that of having the right “peaceably to assemble” to protest and make their opinions heard, as that fine sentence at the beginning of this piece points out.
On what grounds did the GOP activists make their protest? Genova claimed to have gotten calls from both citizens and local businesses concerned that protestors were harming business on Main Street. Henderson told commissioners someone needs to do something before the situation gets more heated. Forrestal, who has started counterprotesting across the street said at one point, protestors walked over to her and surrounded her, and she felt “intimidated.”
I’m not going to laugh out loud because this is a worthwhile discussion to have. None of those concerns come even knee-high to overriding the First Amendment right to assemble, especially to a group that has a permit and has had not a single instance of acting violently or even impeding passersby, in a country where we will always reserve the right to tell our elected leaders, “go to hell,” if we so choose. That’s America!
If we take the three who went to the commissioners at their word — meaning, they spoke honestly and their intent wasn’t to stop the protests because they disagree with the Hands Off Haywood message, that it wasn’t to stifle free speech — then this little incident will just fade away because it is a non-issue. Commissioners quibbled just a bit, reminding protestors to keep their protests peaceable and even voicing some concerns about the impact on businesses. Feeble, but they are elected and so must answer to those who come before them.
As a person who makes their living off a free press and the First Amendment, I love this issue and the fact that this discussion actually happened. With that in mind, I’ll give a rousing shout of support to the Saturday protestors, to Forrestall for her courageous counterprotesting, to those who spoke at the commissioner meeting, to the commissioners, to the media who covered this issue, and, most importantly, to the First Amendment and all its glorious guarantees. Happy Constitution Week.
(Scott McLeod can be reached at info@smokymountainnews.com.)