Whose Constitution is it?

The first day of the current session of Congress the initial order of business was a reading of the Constitution and all its amendments. While some people question the value of reading the Constitution and derided the agenda item as political theater it was my feeling that those who are elected to public office need an occasional reminder of the power and scope of the document that justifies their job. Just a few days later an event occurred in Massachusetts, the state that takes pride in calling itself “The Cradle of Liberty” , that shines a light on the need to understand  the liberties the Constitution provides.

In Arlington Massachusetts a fellow by the name of Travis Corcoran is the owner of Heavy Ink Comics. He identifies himself as an anarcho-capatalist and has a philosophical bent that I normally view with distaste. An example of his thinking was a comment in his blog that he didn’t feel like shedding any tears over the shooting event in Tucson AZ. His article was titled “1 down, 534 to go”. I personally think his writing style is appalling and the thinking behind the article juvenile. But that’s my opinion and everyone is entitled to have a different viewpoint. Because the Constitution says we can!

As a result of stating his thoughts publicly Mr. Corcoran was visited by the Arlington MA police department who proceeded to confiscate whatever guns he had plus all his ammunition, and seized his firearms license. They also suggested he shut down his blog site. All because by stating his opinion he had become in their minds a potential danger to the public.

Was his commentary in bad taste and even tacky? Of course it was! But what he wrote was just speech. Political speech perhaps but speech protected by the First Amendment to the Constitution and for exercising that  right the Commonwealth of Massachusetts took away both his 1^st and 2^nd Amendment rights.

We need to remember the Constitution and perhaps read it more often.