Support FR
Support FR
Posted on 02/11/2013 8:39:36 AM PST by SWAMPSNIPER
I got this in email form and asked permission to post it in full here.
This occurred at Castillo De San Marcos National Monument in St. Augustine, Florida.
Today, it became real..... by Maureen Michelle 2/9/2013
If you've been paying attention these past twelve years, you'll have noticed our Liberty is in grave danger.The unrelenting chipping away of the cornerstone started the day they took the three Towers in New York City. I am an Oath Keeper. An oath keeper takes seriously their oath sworn to uphold, defend and protect the constitution. I read about the abuses of our government everyday. I've researched House Resolutions, United States Codes and illegal Executive Orders written monthly in defiance to the constitution. Today ironically, 2 blocks from our town square where the Freedom Trail is commemorated with the golden footsteps of the civil rights movement in 1963, our loss of Liberty became manifest. Today, in America's oldest city, it became all too real to me. The loss of Liberty actually touched me. It was no longer just words or blogs on the internet. It wasn't something I'd copied and pasted into a forum. No, today I felt the loss of Liberty...For the very first time in my life, it became real to me. I became a Jew, with a yellow star pinned to my chest. I became an Irishwoman tending her man shot by an English soldier, in his own homeland. Today I was the defiant Chinese man standing in front of a tank in TiananmenSquare. Today I was an American, arguing for my free speech....today it was myturn.
This Saturday afternoon, I was in the company of two St Augustine Tea Party Gentlemen. They were dressed in colonial garb,complete with tricorn hats, carrying Gadsden & Molon Labe flags. This is a weekly happening for them. They pass out pocket constitutions along a busy thoroughfare to tourists & passers by. They spread the message of Liberty to the thousands who visit our city from across the country visiting St. George Street, in America's oldest city. My tea Party companions Lance and Dave, wanted a picture of themselves for their newsletter standing in front of the Castillo San Marco fort, an historical national landmark.They wanted a picture holding their flags flying. They warned me before hand that we might "get chased" as we weren't allowed to be just anywhere with our patriotic messages...I didn't really comprehend or register what they were telling me, when they mentioned free speech“zone”. The wind on top of the rise kept blowing off their hats! The flags were flying in their faces,camera adjustments had to be made, the picture taking was taking longer than it should have. The tourists are coming and going, entering and leaving the fort. They're clapping for us, cheering the Americans, enjoining the flag's sentiments saying "Come & Take It". I was juggling in my hands a flat brown paper package with fliers inside and a small telephone/camera on video mode. I reached down to catch one of my companion's blown off hat's. I returned it and found a Park Ranger straddled across his bicycle on the hill in front of me. He was smiling at the blowing tricorn hats and us chasing them.
"Ooohh careful now, don't fall" he addressed us on this sunny hillside. Then he addressed me. "Ma'am, your not allowed to be here with this kind of display, you're not within the 1st amendment free speech zone.." I stared at him for a moment...handsome healthy looking young man, on a bike. I thought of Central Park in NY, that he could've been riding on a path with his wife or kids. "Excuse me" I said," I don't think I understood what you just said......?" The young Park Ranger repeated his initial statement. Very polite, very respectful,soft spoken, smiling with his dazzlingly white teeth.
"Ma'am... you're not allowed to be here with these signs, or pass out material (which I wasn't doing any of)outside of the 1st Amendment zone which is over there down the hill."
It took me a second till it clicked,this is what my Tea Party companions mentioned about the "zone"...! Me: It sounds like, you are telling me, there is a designated area for free speech, or the 1st amendment?
Park Ranger:Yes ma'am, that is what I am saying...over there, is a section...." he indicated with his head while holding his handlebars leaning on the hill. He responded to my question in such complete nonchalance like I'd asked him where were the drinking fountains or restrooms!
I was incredulous as to what I was hearing....and I am sure my mouth was hanging open in disbelief.
Me: Sir? Did you swear an oath when you took this job? PR: Yes ma'am, I did.. Me: To what? To what did you swear an oath to? PR: To the country... Me: To the constitution? PR: Yes ma'am. Me:Yet, you are breaking that oath this very moment! You're telling me, that on these park grounds, of which I support, I may only exercise my 1st amendment right,which is within the bill of rights, in a designated area? Have we reverted into Nazi Germany sir? PR: I understand ma'am... Me: You understand that you, right now, are not only breaking your oath to the constitution you swore to uphold and defend, but attempting to force me to deny my oath as well? You sir are denying me my 1st amendment rights as a citizen of this country! Our rights cannot bedesignated on a piece of ground! Our rights go from sea to shining sea! They are not your rights to take or give or designate to a piece of ground!
Why have you no American Flag on your uniform? Why is there no American flag flying over this fort? I understand you are just doing your job, but that's exactly what the Nazi's said in Nuremberg Germany. Is this not still the United States? PR: I understand...this is federally owned ma'am.. Me: Yes, by me! I am the government, I own this park, as do all of these people walking up this sidewalk! This park belongs not to an "office", but of all these people around me here today,including yourself!
Maybe he will think about this when he goes home tonight......
I went home, with all this jazz in my head, the tyranny became real...I felt it today.... and cried.............
Seems to be they at least think so. I find it interesting that the taxpayers fund the government, but have little to no say over the use of the property “we” own....
And I surely do not think that a bunch of congress critters who may have little knowledge of property management should have a say without our input of how our resources should be used...
"Ve vere only followink orders."
Not a very good defense, as many an obedient SS-mann would have told you if you'd asked him before he swung from a rope.
I remember hearing that bigears and the moooooch walked the accumulation parade route until they got to the Free Speech Zone. Then they got in the car and rode the rest of the way.
Yep, no argument from me. So, did she stay or did she go to the "zone"?
Not my favorite fort...just saying.
European city of St. Augustine was founded by the admiral Pedro Menéndez de Avilés who is responsible for and did massacred the first wave of Huguenot Christians in America.
Like in the movie The Pianist, the “zone” gets smaller and smaller.
I worry about this dynamic every single day.
The courts upheld the decision because technically, they aren’t telling you that can’t express yourself.. They are telling you that you can’t express yourself _right there_. Same with permits.
They haven’t removed your right to free speech - they just added some extra steps.
When it comes to gun control, the argument is same. If they were to make all guns illegal - except one single shot blackpowder model, and then told you that you could only shoot it at a single approved range in each state - They aren’t technically taking away guns, and they aren’t technically removing your right to shoot one. They are putting up barriers and adding extra steps.
This is how they have gotten away with what they have in the way of gun control to date : They aren’t telling people they can’t own and carry a weapon. They are making it damned near impossible to do it. Which is close, but not exactly, banning. You can own and carry a firearm in NYC for instance - But it’s so damned tough to do so that it’s “Basically” not going to happen.
They can, and will do this for the entire nation.
What we need to press on with is the notion of “Shall not be infringed” then we need to update the term “infringed”. Our second amendment has already been “Infringed” and we never made a stink about it. Since the 30’s full-auto ban - it’s been infringed.
According to the constitution, if I can afford a SAM site - I have every RIGHT to buy and deploy one. That’s not a privilege, it’s my RIGHT.
There are still rules in public parks, public grounds, public roads, etc. They still have to be managed, you still need permits and such to have a protest. Just because it’s a park doesn’t mean you can just do anything you want, anytime you want. Thousands of lefties thought it was their free speech to protest in public parks by camping and refusing to leave. They were wrong. Fortunately most courts ruled against the occutards and eventually threw them out.
OK, so you agree that it is unconstitutional to hand out copies of the US Constitution on federal parklands? What?!?!
Will these new free speech zones be target zones for hussein’s new civil army?
I'm saying you can't dress up and leaflet anywhere you want in public parks. That's essentially what these folks were doing. Some parks have rules that allow for it, others don't. Would I be happy if the parks made exemptions for these patriots and other groups I happen to support? Sure. Do I expect that to happen? No. Parks have rules. The fact that these people can't do their thing anywhere, anytime they want in a public park does not mean we are losing our freedoms.
And in fact that's one of the tests of government restriction of speech. If they allowed some and not others, they'd be in violation of the First Amendment, but by restricting all speech they're not.
Poor guy. He is the same one who always tells my little girls they aren’t allowed to play in the enormous live oaks. He is handsome, polite and sweet.
“They’re trees. My girls like to climb trees at the park,” I tell him. Then he proceeds to ask me again to tell them to come down.
Federal government SUCKS. And not just because they don’t let my girls in their trees. :)
if you need a permit to exercise your ‘right’... it’s not a right.
be it free speech ... or buying a gun.
rights cannot be taken away by govt, as they never gave them in the first place. rights can only be denied.
which makes you wonder what ‘shall not be infringed’ means... without the teeth (civil penalty) to back it up.
It was a 1st amendment free zone? Was it a 2nd amendment free zone also, no guns allowed?
BFL. Freedom is seldom taken all in one grand stroke. It is chipped away, piece by piece, one little sliver at a time.
The First Amendment pretty well guarantees that people will be offended at some point or another. While I understand your disinterest in the Hari Krishna who you may (though not likely) encounter walking Pickett’s Charge (and it still takes my breath away), no where in the first amendment is there a guarantee that you will never hear what displeases you
I get it that whether a government agency or office or a private office or private commercial area, those in charge can control where the public is free to go and where it is not.
But if the public is free to go somewhere and that somewhere is public property not private property, it is difficult to understand how the same area can be free to go to but not free to speak in.
The permanent government increasingly realizes it is in charge and we are not.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.