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The First Amendment Amendment 1 - Freedom of Religion, Press, Expression. Ratified 12/15/1791. 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. In the opinion of many, the First Amendment is the single most important part of the Constitution. It protects some of the most basic human rights and reflects a view of the dangerous places government might tread. The ability to speak your mind is a right that Americans take for granted. Imagine being too frightened by the possible consequences of speaking out to actually do so. Your opinion would not matter — even your vote would be corrupted. Even as important is the right to petition your government — not only can you have an opinion about your government, the government must listen to you (though it need not heed you — but that's what elections are for). Some of the first colonists of the nation for which the Constitution was written had been seeking to escape religious persecution. The constitutions of several of the states prohibited public support of religion (though some did explicitly support or demand adherence to Christianity). Above all, the many varying sects of Christianity in America required that to be fair to all, there could be preference to none. It would have been disgraceful for anyone to wish to leave the United States because of religious persecution. So the authors decided it best to keep the government out of religion. This is not to say that the United States was not or is not a religious nation. Religion plays a big role in the everyday life of Americans, then and now. But what the authors were striving for is tolerance... something many so-called liberal Americans are lacking. As for the press, the authors of the
Constitution regarded a free press as the watchdog/ombudsman
for all citizens to constantly be kept informed of government's
activities and actions to insure that government met their oaths of
office to follow the supreme law of the nation- the Constitution.
Though today's tabloid papers and television might give one pause,
this kind of trash is a small price to pay to ensure that any news
organization can rest assured that it can report freely and
truthfully on the legal activities of the government. Many
other organizations in other nations have to worry about toeing the
state's line or be shut down. How objective do you think a reporter
can be when his life could be ended because of a critical story?
Freedom of the press is predicated on the assumption that the press
truthfully and without personal bias, reports and comments on these
activities of the government. There is wide concern today that many
in the press have become an extension of the government, omitting to
live up to the criteria presumed to go hand in hand with the unique
freedom accorded to the press. The Constitution in no way included
freedom of the press as an unrelated organ of government, controlled
by and based upon the inherent bias of those that are part of
government. |