World Bridge Federation Closing Ceremony

As American citizens we have the right to freedom of expression
guaranteed to us. An organization like the ACBL may choose to ask its
representatives to not make such a statement and may instate a policy
that would set up sanctions against such actions. This would be
reasonable. To the best of my knowledge the ACBL has no such policy.

What is not reasonable is to have no such policy in place, and then
attempt to bring sanctions against members who are pursuing their
rights as citizens. While all of the outraged membership may feel
extremely offended by what occurred, and while I may personally agree
that this was probably not the right forum to try to further a
political agenda, there is currently nothing in ACBL policy to forbid
a representative of the ACBL from expressing their opinions in this
way.

If the ACBL wants to come up with a policy that would forbid any
representative from expressing any political opinion at an official
bridge function, then all of the membership should abide by such a
regulation. Until that policy is in effect there should be no attempt
to sanction or punish any person who expresses their political views.

I sympathize with those of you who think that this expression was in
bad taste. But please, go through proper procedure to make sure it
does not happen again. Retroactively taking away freedom of speech is
something done in autocracies, not democracies.