First Amendment Pledge

To the best of our knowledge, our constitution, through the first amendment, guarantees our right to peacefully protest.

Under George W. Bush, this right has been eroded, circumvented by having police tell protestors they have to keep all anti-Bush signs "out of eyesight" of George W. Bush. To this means, protestors are being herded away to distances further and further from the event. In the most recent example, Bob Kunst of Oral Majority, was sent five miles from the gate to Disney, where Dick Cheney appeared.

As most know, a few days ago, we had two grandmothers from "Mad Grandparents for Justice" arrested and handcuffed for refusing to leave a Florida field with their 8 1/2 by 11-inch signs, saying "Investigate Floridagate." The elderly gentleman accompanying them was knocked to the ground, where he suffered a cut to the head. The field in which these three people wanted to hold their signs (already removed from sticks) was filled with pro-Bush signs.

Some of us have decided to stop cowering.

By signing this petition, you are are agreeing to JUST SAY NO the next time you appear at a protest and are told that you must move to a distance more than one block away or that "for security purposes" all signs must be "out of eyeshot" of George W. Bush.

I, the author of this petition, am a grandmother and a U.S. citizen, and I will NO LONGER be denied my right to protest. I have the right to freely and peacefully assemble with my friends. I have a right to carry protest signs, though I will remove the stakes or sticks on which they are mounted if required. I have a right to say NO when they tell me to move on. I have a right to pass on some of our founding father's words: "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." -Benjamin Franklin

I am willing to be arrested rather than have these rights destroyed. If you sign this petition, you too are willing to face arrest rather than move on like the sheep that they would have us be. The next time I am told to move on beyond what is reasonable and beyond an area of some visibility, I will say no. They will have to arrest me.

I PLEDGE this refusal to cower under the threats to which they have no legal claim.