This is an opinion column.
Much has been made about the treatment of the press in this age of protest, of dissent, daresay of revolution. The attacks and assaults and injuries have been unprecedented in this country.
My own colleagues have been detained by police, as they have been punched by protesters in Birmingham. They have been gassed by police, along with peaceful but determined objectors in Huntsville, shot at with police pepper bullets in Mobile. It is true here, as it has been across the country. Observing the tension between police and those who gather to protest police violence can be risky, and dangerous.
I stand with my colleagues. I stand with those everywhere who bring you information, who have always entered dangerous situations without shield or weapon, who have long considered themselves an extension of the people, until for political gain some branded them an enemy.
We stand with our colleagues, because we love them, and value what they do in these days and all those others, those anonymous moments when you won’t see their bruises or hear shock in their voices. We stand with them, but it should be clear, we do not stand apart from you.
Because it would be a mistake, a trap, to be indignant about the treatment of our media brothers and sisters and not be as concerned for that child who was gassed Wednesday in a Huntsville city park, for every other American, every other human being bruised by rubber bullets or left gasping for air, from gas or pepper or a knee to the throat.
Sure, we in the media like to hold up the First Amendment, the very first thing the Founders thought of when they decided to make a list of American rights. We post it on our walls, because the press was the beneficiary of explicit freedom. Congress was barred from making any laws to limit it, and we enjoy that and hold it sacred.
But that’s the thing. The brief and beautiful blessing of that First Amendment gives me and my colleagues nothing more than it gives to every one of you, and to all those protesters who peacefully assemble to speak their minds and express grievances with their government.
It is owned by all of us, the foundation of what Americans want and what they were promised from the start. It is why Americans protest, and why they can protest in the first place. It is why they should be able to kneel or to stand, peacefully, to observe or complain without fear of pain or death or detainment.
Simply because they are people. We the People. Nothing more, and nothing less.
It shakes the very foundation of this republic any time and anywhere peaceful Americans are gassed, or bruised, or detained “for their own safety.”
The words are clear and full of promise:
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.
It is as American as us. All of us. Like the right to life, and liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Basic rights. That George Floyd and too many like him will never get.
That’s what this protest is about.
John Archibald, a Pulitzer Prize winner, is a columnist for AL.com. His column appears in The Birmingham News, the Huntsville Times, the Mobile Register, Birmingham Magazine and AL.com. Write him at jarchibald@al.com.
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June 05, 2020 at 01:28AM
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Media gassed, punched, detained, but there’s more to the story - AL.com
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