Posted on 05/14/2004 8:20:31 AM PDT by freeeee
The King made a royal visit to Wisconsin last week, and as is common when monarchs travel, individual liberties were suspended.
King George Bush's bus trip across western Wisconsin closed schools and roads, prevented residents from moving freely in their own communities, and prevented citizens from exercising their free speech rights.
All in all, it was a typical George W. Bush visit.
But there's a slight twist.
People in western Wisconsin, who hold to the refreshingly naive notion that they live in a republic as opposed to an imperial realm, are objecting.
"There's a pattern of harassment of free speech here that really concerns me," says Guy Wolf, the student services coordinator at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. "If they're going to call it a presidential visit, then it should be a presidential visit - where we can hear from him and he can hear from us. But that's not what happened here, not at all."
Wolf and other La Crosse area residents who wanted to let the president know their feelings about critical issues came face to face with the reality that, when King George travels, he is not actually interested in a two-way conversation.
Along the route of the Bush bus trip from Dubuque to La Crosse, the Bush team created a "no-free-speech" zone that excluded any expressions of the dissent that is the lifeblood of democracy. In Platteville, peace activist Frank Van Den Bosch was arrested for holding up a sign that was critical of the president. The sign's "dangerous" message, "FUGW," was incomprehensible to children and, no doubt, to many adults. Yet, it was still determined sufficiently unsettling to the royal procession that Van Den Bosch was slapped with a disorderly conduct ticket.
Up the road in La Crosse, the clampdown on civil liberties was even more sweeping. Wolf and hundreds of other Wisconsinites and Minnesotans who sought to express dissents were videotaped by authorities, told they could not make noise, ordered not to display certain signs and forced to stand out of eyesight of Bush and his entourage. Again and again, they were told that if they expressed themselves in ways that were entirely protected by the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, they would be "subject to arrest."
"Everyone understood the need for basic security for the president, but none of us could understand why we had to give up our free speech rights," explained Wolf.
La Crosse Mayor John Medinger shares that concern. The Bush-Cheney campaign leased a portion of a local park where the royal rally was held. Yet, Wisconsinites who wanted to protest Bush's visit were told they could not use a sound system in a completely different section of the park.
"I want to find out why the whole park was used when only a portion was leased," Medinger told the La Crosse Tribune. "So when demonstrators were told they couldn't have (sound) systems, the question is why."
The Bush-Cheney campaign paid a $100 fee to use one part of the park, but disrupted much of the city. Medinger is now assessing the full cost of the royal visit and hopes to deliver a bill to the campaign, which State Elections Board attorney George Dunst says the Bush campaign should pay. Other communities, including Prairie du Chien, are looking at following Medinger's lead.
But the challenge should not just be a financial one. The Bush visit attacked First Amendment rights up and down the Mississippi. A lot of people are owed apologies.
In a monarchy, of course, the King never apologizes. But in a democracy, the president is supposed to be accountable to the people.
By pressing demands that the charges against Frank Van Den Bosch be dropped and that the White House and the Bush-Cheney campaign apologize for participating in an anti-democratic endeavor, residents of western Wisconsin can, and should, take up the cause of this country's founders. It is time once more to challenge a King named George.
Caption: President Bush waves to crowds from his campaign bus as he passes through Prairie du Chien last Friday. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Lets me know this person thinks that they are more important than the President. Reflects the pox of the " ME"generation.
got any court cases that say the other side can be moved only so far? Didn't think so. As you admitted it has been well established that side CAN be seperated, which is all this is doing. Thus you show how the courts agree with me.
not every court case you disagree with is judicial activism. Sometimes your just plain wrong. This would be one of those times.
Suffice it to say you have a, ahem,,,, novel,,, interpretation of the first amendment and freedom in general. Carry on.
My posts are not inane, shrill or obtuse. They are on the point, at least as polite as yours, and have shown quite clearly that you don't know anything about our constitutional garuantee of free speech. My interpetation isn't novel at all, it's perfectly in line with 200+ years of jurisprudence on the subject.
Compared to the right of free speech and assembly, the president and indeed the entire government is a lowly worm.
Their positions exist solely to protect our rights and uphold our Constitution. They are merely public servants, and liberty is their job.
If they think their discomfort at the sight of Americans engaged in their civic duty to influence their government through free speech and assembly is paramount over the liberty that makes this country great, then they have lost sight of their place, and need to be taken down a notch.
I'm comfortable with readers making their own judgements on those issues. Carry on.
Ask Don Adams about clinton's visit to Philadelphia aroun 1998.
He got his butt kicked by Union thugs and then was brought to court for it by the D.A.!
Personally, I think beatings are in order for all liberals.
And no, I'm not kidding.
One day (and no I don't look forward to it) a Dem will be president. And they'll be crying just like they did when Clinton did the same thing. I'm going to ping them all and see what they have to say for themsleves. I predict a very short thread when that happens.
Disco welcome to the world of Libertarianism on FR. Kinda of a like a mix of 75% of ACLU and 25% of William Buckley.
Good for you. Got any proof the protester wasn't doing anything else illegal. I will carry on, I will point out your false assumptions and poor Constitutional interpretations every single time I see them. Enjoy.
Looks like you got a 'hole lotta ass kickin' to do, better get started. LOL
You will be doing it yourself won't you?
I have no proof that he wasn't killing babies while dancing upside down either.
I'm not sure I'd call it libertarianism. But there is a growing number of people who think every time their ability to be heard is impeded it must be a First Ammendment violation. We saw it after 9-11 when editorialists got fired, we saw it when Bill Mahrer lost sponsors for saying the terrorists were brave, we saw it when the Dixie Chicks got boycotted for saying they were ashamed of President Bush. And we see it when people waving protest signs at presidential motorcades get shoved down the block. Everybody claims First Ammendment when ever their speech is annoyed (or annoying). My horn was broken on my car a few months ago and when I took it to the mechanic I made fun of these people by demanding he restore my First Ammendment rights and fix my horn, we laughed.
Just get out? Haven't seen you stumbling around here for a while.
BTW, even though you have an obsession about Libertarians, who are you referring to with your comment? Me? Freeee?
Who? Please name them.
but you're perfectly willing to assume the person was arrested for no reason outside of his sign. I'm not willing to make that assumption. The facts as presented say he got arrested, the don't tell us why, until I'm presented with facts that say why I'm not passing judgement either way.
I did, later in the post. Read the whole thing.
My view is that the President, just like any other elected official, is essentially my hired help.
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