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Pitts: First Amendment has no meaning unless…

Associated Press videojournalist Robert Bumsted reminds a police officer that the press are considered “essential workers" and are allowed to be on the streets despite a curfew, Tuesday, June 2, 2020, in New York. New York City police officers surrounded, shoved and yelled expletives at two Associated Press journalists covering protests in the latest aggression against members of the media during a week of unrest around the country. Portions of the incident were captured on video by Bumsted, who was working with photographer Wong Maye-E to document the protests in lower Manhattan over the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.(AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)
Associated Press videojournalist Robert Bumsted reminds a police officer that the press are considered “essential workers" and are allowed to be on the streets despite a curfew, Tuesday, June 2, 2020, in New York. New York City police officers surrounded, shoved and yelled expletives at two Associated Press journalists covering protests in the latest aggression against members of the media during a week of unrest around the country. Portions of the incident were captured on video by Bumsted, who was working with photographer Wong Maye-E to document the protests in lower Manhattan over the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.(AP Photo/Wong Maye-E) Associated Press videojournalist Robert Bumsted reminds a police officer that the press are considered “essential workers" and are allowed to be on the streets despite a curfew, Tuesday, June 2, 2020, in New York. New York City police officers surrounded, shoved and yelled expletives at two Associated Press journalists covering protests in the latest aggression against members of the media during a week of unrest around the country. Portions of the incident were captured on video by Bumsted, who was working with photographer Wong Maye-E to document the protests in lower Manhattan over the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.(AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)

By Leonard Pitts Jr. / The Miami Herald 4 min read

“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 people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

– The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution

Those words have no meaning.

Not until or unless you and I agree they do. After all, neither the parchment on which the promises are written nor the Supreme Court that interprets them has any means to compel our obeisance. The words have force because we choose to be bound by them.

That’s the basis of a free society. A traffic cop has power to tell us when to go and when to stop because we agree he or she does; if every driver refused to obey, what could they do? A piece of paper with Abraham Lincoln’s picture on it can be exchanged for a 12-pack of Coke or two gallons of gas, because we agree that it can; but if ever we don’t, the paper is worthless.