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Speak Out
How will you celebrate Bill of Rights Day?
By John Vettese, Student Voices staff writer
Imagine for a minute that the First Amendment did not exist.
What would your life be like without the many freedoms it provides, just in that 45-word space? In it, you are given the freedom to speak as you choose, to worship in whatever religion you choose, to assemble with groups of your fellow citizens, and more.
If the Founding Fathers had decided that these things weren’t really that important – well, 18-year-old Emma Sullivan might have been reprimanded or even imprisoned for posting a tweet making fun of the governor of her home state of Kansas. Protest movements, from Occupy Wall Street to the group of San Francisco citizens who spoke out against police shootings, would not have been allowed to get off the ground, much less become as widespread as they did. And not only would other religious groups not be able to challenge crosses as highway memorials, it’s also possible they’d be forced to practice Christianity.
And that’s just the First Amendment. There are nine others in the Bill of Rights, which celebrates it 220th anniversary this week. The Second Amendment says the government will not infringe on your right to bear arms; the Fourth protects you from unreasonable search and seizure; the Eighth Amendment protects criminal defendants from cruel and unusual punishment.
To mark the occasion of the document’s anniversary, Dec. 15 is National Bill of Rights Day – when people across the country, from young to old, are encouraged to ponder their freedoms and why they are significant. The Bill of Rights Institute encourages people to pledge to read the Bill of Rights on that day; the Knight Foundation is awarding 22 college scholarships to students who tweet about their freedoms using the hashtag #freetotweet.
What do you think?
How will you celebrate Bill of Rights Day? What do its freedoms mean to you? What would your life be like without the freedoms of speech and expression provided in the First Amendment, or the protections against unreasonable search and seizure and cruel and unusual punishment? What is your favorite part of the Bill of Rights, and why? Join the discussion!
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