It's been around for a while -- it's a place you go where you are allowed to say what you will, and be heckled if necessary. It's not a new thing, even inside the protest community (I know - I got put in one in 1990, away from a politician I was protesting).
I think it is good to know the tenets of free speech, and no, they aren't included in the Constitution because they were considered normal to civilized discourse when it was written. Things like "free speech issues are part of public policy, and differs from commercial or corporate speech" and "expression of opinion will not get you arrested (except slander) but can cause lost of employment, companionship, and respect". There are others, which can be found easily enough with google. That it requires common courtesy and common sense means it is a very uncommon thing, indeed.
The necessary obligation of responsibility is held within that second point -- that you may hold whatever opinion you desire, and express it as you like, but be assured that you will be held responsible for that opinion, and the consequences may be undesirable. You cannot pretend to have free speech without paying for it with accountability.
And, I know that the Secret Service has controlled many things since Nixon, including PR issues. It isn't hard to find the complaints by the media, either. Google is our friend, there.
Finally, the creators of this country considered democracy a thing to avoid, calling it one of the worse evils of society. Or, as James Madison said, "...democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property; and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths." Further, John Witherspoon, signer of the Declaration of Independence, noted, "Pure democracy cannot subsist long nor be carried far into the departments of state – it is very subject to caprice and the madness of popular rage." And, John Adams, President, wrote, "Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide."
Let us be assured, then, that we work under laws first, and if the laws are in error, we must work to change them, not flaunt and deride them. Though, as we have also discovered, civil disobedience is often the only way to bring change to a beginning. Bursey was no hero, because he was not opposed to the law, but instead attempted to protest where he was not allowed. Had he been doing it to get the law changed, I'd think differently. As it is, he was just indifferent to the fundamental basis of our country - a republic is a rule by law, not by the people, and no one should ever be above the law.
Heaven help us if we can ever convince our politicians of the truth of that.
Re: fascism
In fact, here's a 1997 article about a free speech zone:
http://www.kstatecollegian.com/issues/v102/fa/n041/opinion/opn-mclemore.html
It's been around for a while -- it's a place you go where you are allowed to say what you will, and be heckled if necessary. It's not a new thing, even inside the protest community (I know - I got put in one in 1990, away from a politician I was protesting).
I think it is good to know the tenets of free speech, and no, they aren't included in the Constitution because they were considered normal to civilized discourse when it was written. Things like "free speech issues are part of public policy, and differs from commercial or corporate speech" and "expression of opinion will not get you arrested (except slander) but can cause lost of employment, companionship, and respect". There are others, which can be found easily enough with google. That it requires common courtesy and common sense means it is a very uncommon thing, indeed.
The necessary obligation of responsibility is held within that second point -- that you may hold whatever opinion you desire, and express it as you like, but be assured that you will be held responsible for that opinion, and the consequences may be undesirable. You cannot pretend to have free speech without paying for it with accountability.
And, I know that the Secret Service has controlled many things since Nixon, including PR issues. It isn't hard to find the complaints by the media, either. Google is our friend, there.
Finally, the creators of this country considered democracy a thing to avoid, calling it one of the worse evils of society. Or, as James Madison said, "...democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property; and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths." Further, John Witherspoon, signer of the Declaration of Independence, noted, "Pure democracy cannot subsist long nor be carried far into the departments of state – it is very subject to caprice and the madness of popular rage." And, John Adams, President, wrote, "Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide."
Let us be assured, then, that we work under laws first, and if the laws are in error, we must work to change them, not flaunt and deride them. Though, as we have also discovered, civil disobedience is often the only way to bring change to a beginning. Bursey was no hero, because he was not opposed to the law, but instead attempted to protest where he was not allowed. Had he been doing it to get the law changed, I'd think differently. As it is, he was just indifferent to the fundamental basis of our country - a republic is a rule by law, not by the people, and no one should ever be above the law.
Heaven help us if we can ever convince our politicians of the truth of that.