The First Amendment of the United States Constitution allows each American citizen the freedom to express their opinion but, like everything else, this freedom can be used either responsibly or irresponsibly.
It’s understandable that when people are angry or highly upset about a particular issue that their emotions will be expressed with great passion, but there are certain kinds of behavior that are not acceptable under any condition, and it is never permissible to disregard the rule of law.
Screaming obscenities and angrily calling people derogatory names may be permitted by the Constitution, but it isn’t civil behavior, and violence against any person, place, or thing is unlawful. Yet, more and more groups are organizing protests with the deliberate intent of using anger and violence to express their displeasure. Worse yet, they not only want confrontation but they go out of their way to make it happen.
Such people are not friends of the Constitution but are enemies of liberty. What they want is to overthrow the Constitution by using the freedoms provided for in the Constitution in order to establish a system of government that will take away our freedom to express any opinion different from theirs.
Without civility and respect for law we have anarchy, yet it is easy to disregard these principles when we allow our emotions to get out of control. The easiest way for that to happen is to be around those who are trying to get under our skin; therefore, it is best to stay away from wherever angry protests are occurring. However, what usually happens is that angry protestors come to where members of the Tea Party are holding their rally with the intent of provoking us into confrontation.
Usually the police provide some sort of a barrier between competing protesters; therefore, to keep our emotions under control and to keep from falling into the trap our opposition tries to lure us into, we need to stay as far away from the boundaries of the barrier as we can. Trying to engage those types of people in any kind of a debate is useless and only generates a bitter exchange of words. The wisest course of action is to just ignore them. That will get under their skin more than anything else we could do.
