Re: Freedom Forum report on the State of the First Amendment

[The Sheriff <sheriff@speakeasy.org>]

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At 8:26 PM -0800 1/10/98, Bill Stewart wrote:
>>>> Umm, no, freedom doesn't work like that.  If you open a *private*
>>>> establishment, you have the right, according to the constitution, to
>>>> deny *anyone* the right to enter or eat in your restraunt.
>
>I don't see freedom of association listed anywhere there;
>you might construe it as a "taking" or something, but it'd be a stretch.
>Also, there was a really appalling court case in the 1890s
>(Plessey vs. Ferguson), in which the Supremes ruled that states
>could require segregation with separate but equal accommodations;
>it was somewhat overturned by Brown vs. Board of Education in 1954,
>but the idea that the government can tell you how to run your business
>is long established (after all, we'd need much smaller governments
>if they couldn't be interfering in business.)

Firstly, something being long-established doesn't make it right.
SO, let's look at it this way, regarding the freedom of association.

You have the freedom to associate with whom you choose, don't you
think?  It's not in the constitution, but you would throw a fit if
Uncle Sam told you that it was illegal for you to go play baseball
with little Billy if little Billy was black and you were white.

AND, in my not so humble opinion, If you have the freedom to play
with little Billy, then you have the freedom to tell little Billy
to go fuck himself because you refuse to play with "niggers."

Sam Adams (as it may or may not have been mentioned on this list)
himself had a problem with our constitution -- he didn't think that
it was right for the people to ratify the bill of rights, thereby
protecting certain rights under the constitution.  Why?  Simple.

He was of the mind that setting our rights, such as the right to
free speech, in concrete meant that anything NOT set in concrete
wasn't a right -- he felt that by ratifying the bill of rights,
rather than using logic as I did above, we were actually LIMITING
our rights as freely roaming human beings.

>>>Tell that to Denney's restaurants. (No, not in the United Fascist
>>>States of Amerika you can't.)
>
>>Apologies.  In *theory* you have those rights, on *paper*, you have those
>>rights, but in *practice*, you're correct, the Government has power that
>>it gleefully abuses, forcing others to comply w/ political correctness.
>>
>>I'd like some more info on this Denny's thing.
>
>A Denny's restaurant in Maryland had two groups of customers
>show up one day, one group black, one group white, both about 6-8 people,
>both arriving at the same time, both groups out-of-uniform cops.
>The white people got served promptly, the blacks got served
>extremely late and rudely.  And sued, and won.

Sadly, America has become less of a home to the free and the brave,
and more of a home to the pissed and the laywers.  I remember an
experience where I was lounging in a booth at a Perkins with a few
friends of mine.  Two of them were sitting on one side (they were
dating at the time), and I was stretched across the cushion on the
other side.

The manager came up to me and told me to sit up straight, or he
would ask me to leave.  I lit a cigarette and told him to go fuck
himself.  He asked me to leave.  I did so, my friends in tow, and
we refused to pay the $40 bill on our way out.

America should be about not taking any shit from anybody -- not
because you can sue, but because you have enough attitude to realize
when the other guy's being an idiot, and because you have enough
balls to tell him so.

Best wishes and fresh-roasted peanut taste,
The Sheriff. -- ***<REPLY TO: sheriff@speakeasy.org>***
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