From: qqqq@7600.net   
      
   Morphy's ghost wrote:   
      
   [Dissident:]   
      
   >>Next thing, we'll be hearing the First Amendment guarantees only   
   >>the right to freely have a political position, but you must have   
   >>one, you cannot be positionless.  The First Amendment does not   
   >>guarantee you freedom from speech.   
      
   [Morphy:]   
      
   > It doesn't.  If you don't like what I say, try to shut me up.  You'll find   
   > that the First Amendment protects my right of freedom of speech, but not   
   > your right of freedom from speech.   
      
   Exactly.  You are free to try and spread your political views   
   by speaking them freely and publicly.  You may try to convince   
   me and others by talking to us as much as you want.  We do not   
   have the right to shut you up.  We have no freedom _from_ speech.   
      
   But, we also don't have to agree with a word you say.   
      
   Now, let's walk into a school.  There may or may not now be   
   freedom for individuals to openly speak of their religion   
   there, even to proselytize for it, _as_ _individuals_.  If   
   there is not already freedom to do that, I think there should   
   be.  There need be no "freedom from religion" in that sense.   
      
   But now we enter a classroom where the Pledge of Allegience is   
   being recited.  If I participate, I must say the words "under   
   God" or I will stand out, and most likely suffer some form of   
   censure, ostracism, perhaps overt punishment.  This is no longer   
   an issue of "freedom from religion", this is blatant and direct   
   imposition of a specific religion by the government.   
      
   It is the same as if your freedom of speech (and thus, my lack   
   of freedom _from_ speech) was suddenly turned around to require   
   me to repeat the tenets of your party ("One nation, under Bush,   
   with neo-conservatism, no welfare, no homosexuality, and no   
   divorce for all") instead of simply giving you the right to repeat   
   them to your heart's content.  That's when it becomes fascism.   
      
   And the Pledge of Allegience, as it stands today, is religious   
   fascism.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)