A LONG, TOUGH WEEK IN THE LAND OF THE FREE

If you love freedom, it was a tough week to be an American. It started
on Friday, May 30, when the Eagles Lodge in the Heights canceled a
benefit rock concert after receiving a warning from a federal drug
agent. The lodge could be fined up to $250,000, the agent apparently
said, if anybody was caught using drugs at the concert, which was
aimed at raising money to put a medical marijuana initiative on the
ballot next year.

The threat put a cold chill on the First Amendment right of citizens
to peaceably (if not quietly) assemble and petition the government for
redress of grievances. It is possible, of course, to abhor drugs and
still think this nation's marijuana laws are foolish and
counterproductive.

If you hate drugs so much that you can't think straight about this,
consider a hypothetical scenario: Congress passes a repressive
anti-gun law. The National Rifle Association meets at a Billings hotel
to plan its legal strategy. In a deliberate act of civil disobedience,
an NRA member invites a constitutional challenge by openly violating
the law. A jury finds that the hotel owner should have known that
criminal activity was likely at such an event and forces the hotel
into bankruptcy.

Outraged yet?