Bill+of+Rights+talbem19

=The 1st Amendment= ===="Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."====

Description
==The first amendment says that Congress is not allowed to pass any law telling Americans what religion they can or cannot practice. Congress is not allowed to interfere with our freedom or speech, freedom of press, our right to gather peacefully and the right to express a disagreement with the government.== For us, freedom of speech can mean many different things. It just depends on what you plan on doing with it. = [|What the First Amendment means] =
 * Congress is not allowed to tell you what religion you can and can't have. If you are Christian, you have the right to go to church every Sunday without being questioned. For example, right now in Isis christians are being killed for being christian unless they convert to be Islamic.
 * As Americans we can have a freedom of press. We are allowed to decide for ourselves what we want and do not want to add to the newspaper or news. We are allowed to decide that for ourselves. If we want to put something in the news, saying we disagree with a Senator, we can. Syria doesn't have freedom of press. They are not allowed to decide what can or cannot get in the news.
 * The right to gather peacefully when we disagree with the government. We can go outside the white house anytime we want and protest, as long as we do it peacefully. You might be thinking how can your disagree with someone peacefully? Well, you would not have fire, destroy property or harm others. You would go there, possibly hold up signs and chant over and over what you want. Sometimes you are heard and other times you aren't. An example of this is if the government was tearing down a memorial to build a new one, people could protest saying, "My grandfather died for our country and this is how you repay him?!" That person would be getting there message out but not hurting anyone.
 * The first amendment not only grants us these rights, but we have the right to express ourselves artistically. Anyone in America can draw a picture of anything and sell it as long as it's their own. I could write a book about what ever I want and sell it. As an American, I can do all of this without going to jail.



Historical Applications
In the beginning the first amendment was made to give us our basic freedoms. This is because back when we were forming our government the people were worried that the government would become too powerful. Nowadays these are just basic everyday freedoms we are allowed to practice. There have been times when we have forgotten about our first amendment. For example, during the month September 2007, a student by that went to he University of Florida. His name was Andrew Meyer. Andrew Meyer was brutally dealt with by the police for exercising his first amendment rights at a forum featuring the Senator at the time, John Kerry. Andrew Meyer was tasered and then arrested by the police when he refused to leave the microphone after his allotted time to ask a question - a question the John Kerry sated he was prepared to answer. There was a girl named Mary Beth Tinker, she and her brother wanted to protest the Vietnam war by wearing black armbands to school. They are allowed to do this because of their first amendment rules. The administrator feared the armband would be a distraction. The Tinkers failed to comply, so they were removed from the school. Later on the Supreme court ruled that their actions were protected by the first amendment. Benjamin Franklin once said "Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech."

Today's Application
In America we have an organization called FAP. FAP stands for "the First Amendment Process." FAP is a nonprofit advocacy organization dedicated to promoting and protecting our freedom of expression, information, and the right to petition. The First Amendment Process has been in use for over ten years. They provide advice and educational materials, plus so much more. In today's society we use these freedoms everyday without realizing it. Just by making this page I am using freedom of speech and freedom of press. If I were to talk to talk to my mo for example about why I disagree with the government on a topic and a police man heard me, I wouldn't have to go to jail. During the year 1989, a man named Gregory Lee Johnson burned an American flag. He and a group of people were protesting the Policies of the Reagan Administration and some companies based in Dallas. As they were marching through the street a man from the group stole a flag from a building they disagreed with a began to set it aflame. As they were doing this they were also chanting a phrase that made some offended. They chanted "America, the red white and blue, we spit on you, you stand for plunder, you will go under." The protesters also said "Reagan, Mondale, Which will it be? Either one means world war III." Johnson went to court and was charged with violating the Texas law that prohibits vandalizing protected objects. He was sentenced to prison for a year and fined with $2,000. Of course he protested that he was using his first amendment rights but the court told him "Recognizing that the right to differ is the centerpiece of our First Amendment freedoms, a government cannot mandate by flat a feeling of unity in its citizens.Therefore that very same government cannot carve out a symbol of unity and prescribe a set of approved messages to associated with that symbol." As children of America we have more access to more freedom of speech then ever before. Kids today can take out there phones and say, "Wow that's so funny, I'm going to tweet this, put it on Facebook, Tumblr, Instagram, Pintrest etc." We are able to post what ever we want whenever we want without any punishment from the government. //"The first amendment is like spandex, just because you can, doesn't mean you should." -Phil Robertson//