Flipping off! Giving the bird! Hitchhiking a helicopter! Declaring an individual as #1 in your book!
Protected by the 1st Amendment?
The ACLU (Amalgamated Collection of Lunatics and Undesirables ) thinks so.
Last April, David Hackbart,32, was trying to parallel park when another car pulled up behind him blocking his path. He flipped the driver off and then heard someone behind him say, "Don't flip him off!" He turned his middle finger to that person too, not realizing it was a police officer. Sgt. Brian Elledge promptly cited him for disorderly conduct.
....Witold Walczak, legal mouth for the ACLU of Pennsylvania, has filed suit in Hackbart's behalf stating, "Using profanity under the First Amendment is not, and cannot be, a crime."
....Click on the link from the The Pittsburgh Gazette Post for the complete story.
Somehow, I'm not quite sure this is what our Founding Fathers had in mind when the Amendments were added. Granted, I wasn't there, but do you suppose George Washington flipped off Thomas Jefferson when the subject of the President's powers to wage was was tabled? (Then again, isn't that what Dubya did to the American people?)
....As she was taking the first bite out of that apple, I wonder if Eve raised her arm and extended her middle finger heavenward? Did Lot's wife make the same gesture to her husband when she turned around to watch the fireworks? Did Goliath flip off that little shrimp with the sling? As the temple was falling to rubble around him, I can see Samson giving Delilah the double bird!
People, the wrong message is being sent here. This isn't about justice or the freedom of speech. If it's acceptable for someone to be flipping off people in public everytime things don't go his or her way, where does it all end? Will an underachieving student be within his rights to flash the middle finger at his teacher who simply asked for a homework assignment?
Isn't it strange, that you can be discussing a serious matter and yet be reminded of a joke?
A General in the U.S. Calvary is being escorted to an Indian village to powwow with the Chief of the tribe with terms of a peace treaty. He is accompanied by an Indian scout. They ride into the village and await on horseback as the Chief and elder tribesmen emerge from a tepee.
....He turns to the scout and says, "They are familiar with the terms of the treaty?"
...."Yes, they bring answer now."
....To the General's dismay the Chief raises his hand and extends his middle finger in his direction. In a deliberate manner the chief then tilts his hand and the finger sideways.
...."Okay, I know what a hand and middle finger raised upward means," says the General to the scout, "But what does he mean when he turned his hand sideways?"
....The scout grinned and replied, "It mean and the horse you rode in on."
No.890
