January 16, 2006

To the Editor:

On January 9, 2006 I watched the live broadcast of the Fridley City Council meeting.

When the mayor opened the OPEN FORUM portion of the meeting a Mr. Pete Eisenzimmer approached the podium. He identified himself, as is required and proceeded to address the Council regarding a recent action they had taken regarding pawn shop fees. When all of a sudden I was transported from Friendly Fridley to somewhere else in the world where freedom of speech is forbidden. Ann Bolkum rudely interrupted Mr. Eisenzimmer, asking the Mayor to clarify what he was allowed to talk about. The mayor was just as rude to Mr. Eisenzimmer and demanded that he sit down.

News flash……Americans have the right to engage in countless forms of expression that are Constitutionally protected. One of those is freedom of speech. Free speech is the most basic form of “people power” there is.

The First Amendment Center has this to say about the issue:

“Unfortunately, many situations arise in which citizens are silenced because of the content of their speech or because they have disagreed previously with a government official. This raises the specter of censorship. Government officials may not silence speech because it criticizes them. They may not open a “public comment” period to other topics and then carefully pick and choose which topics they want to hear. They may not even silence someone because they consider him a gadfly or troublemaker.

When government officials create a public-comment forum, they have created a limited public forum in which greater free-speech protections apply. The government may not silence speakers on the basis of their viewpoint or the content of their speech. The government must treat similarly situated speakers similarly. In essence the government must live up to the values embodied in the First Amendment.”

This opinion is further substantiated in Luckett v. Grand Prairie(Texas) and City of Florence(Alabama) v. Elizabeth Romine.

I believe the council member and the mayor need to remember that as elected officials they must always protect the rights of the citizens they serve. The words of Evelyn Beatrice Hall, in her 1906 The Friends of Voltaire, says it best, ” I disapprove of what you have to say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”

Remember this is a government of the people, by the people and FOR the people.

Pam Reynolds
1241 Norton Ave. N.E.
Fridley, MN 55432
763-571-8453

This information was found at www.firstamendmentcenter.org and the Alabama ACLU web site.