My Right To Free Speech

By Terry Funderburk, The Lone Protester


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

For those of you that are not familiar with this phrase, it is the First Amendment to the US Constitution. I brushed up on it the day that I got out of jail. The day that the cops took me to jail to shut me up because I was revealing the truth about something that our politicians like to pretend isn’t happening. And I have major problems understanding that because it seems like to me that it is the politicians that have forgotten what the Constitution and Bill of Rights stand for and not me. Since I got arrested it seems to me that our leaders thought it applied to people that are not even American citizens. And it seemed to me that our leaders thought that we American citizens had forfeited our rights as guaranteed under it.

I have come to the conclusion that our local leaders will apply our laws as they want to. They will apply them to shut me up but at the same time they will use the same laws to give illegal aliens the right to march in our streets and demonstrate even though they do not have that right under our Constitution and Bill of Rights. Can someone out there explain that to me? I am having problems understanding it, because from my viewpoint our politicians are not allowed to decide who our laws apply to and to whom they don’t. Supposedly, under our system of laws nobody is supposed to get a free pass while other people go to jail for crimes such as spitting on the sidewalk or protesting. Justice is supposed to be blind and everybody is supposed to be equal under her eyes. Is it that way today?

They will use our laws to try to shut me up but at the same time they will use those same laws to give criminals a voice. They will take away my rights under those laws but they will give those same rights to criminals. Who gave our leaders that power? I was taken to jail, photographed and fingerprinted for expressing my First Amendments rights. If I was jailed for that crime, then why weren’t those 5,000 illegal aliens that marched in our streets in 2006 jailed for their crimes? Why did those same cops that so readily arrested me for expressing my rights, help block traffic for those 5,000 illegal aliens so they could express rights that they did not have under our Constitution and Bill of Rights? I am having problems understanding this, could any of you reading this help me out? Why hasn’t Jo Dell Pickens, who admitted to employing 22 illegal aliens on June 27th 2007, in the State newspaper, been arrested for her crimes like I was?

My senator, Lindsey Graham, whom I have written three different times asking for his assistance, responded only once. His response was that I am a bigot and a racist, and that I should just shut up. He said that he is for comprehensive immigration reform. Even though comprehensive immigration reform will run me out of a business that I have been in for twenty years, I should just shut my mouth because that is what is best for me and the American people. Does that make any sense to you? I thought that was what was best for the American people was decided by the American people and not criminals that broke into our country. Or the traitors in this country that support them. You know, the ones that are here to supercede the Constitution of the United Sates and the Bill of Rights.

I am writing this as a citizen of the United States and South Carolina , my leaders, my politicians, have preempted that right, as guaranteed under the Constitution of the US and our own state constitution. Who gave then that right? Who gave Lindsey Graham the right to say that I am a bigot and racist? Who gave the right to Bob Coble, the Mayor of Columbia, SC, the right to have me arrested for protesting my rights, and at the same time, to allow allow thousands of illegal aliens to protest in our streets who did not have any rights? Who gave that man the right to decide that he will enforce our laws against me protesting, but he will enforce some law that isn’t in our Constitution?

I am writing this for one reason, if I can be arrested for expressing my rights, as guaranteed under our Constitution, then each and every one of you American citizens, every one of you can be arrested for the same reason. Our leaders have perverted our Constitution for their own benefit. Our leaders have perverted our Bill of Rights for their own reasons. When our leaders and politicians pervert our laws for their own personal benefit, then we are not a nation of laws any longer, we are simply in a dictatorship. When I can be arrested for protesting being run out of business by illegal aliens and their employers, then we are not a nation of laws any longer, we are a dictatorship. When I am told to shut up, because I am a racist and bigot, by my senator, then we are a dictatorship.

And that is why I continue writing about what happened to me, a citizen of South Carolina and the United Sates. If I can be arrested and shut up, then so can each one of you, even though you are guaranteed to speak your mind under our Constitution. Even though you can be put in jail for speaking your mind, criminals that broke into our country, and their employers here, have more rights than you.

This country has been perverted, our Constitution has been turned upside down. But one fact remains as a shining example for each and every one of you American citizens. And that fact is, that this country belongs to us, each and every one of you. It does not belong to people like Lindsey Graham and Bob Coble. It does not belong to the politicians currently running for president. It does not belong to people who declared themselves criminals the moment they decided to break into out our country. It does not belong to the criminals currently employing them. It belongs to us. It belongs to people like me, arrested for protesting.

And that is why I continue writing about what happened to me. Because what happened to me can happen to every American citizen out there. Because, if every American citizen does not look out for their rights, then you will have no more rights. Are there any questions?