A group of high school students from around the country learned that lesson the hard way on June 25 when they sang the “Star Spangled Banner” at the Lincoln Memorial. A United States Park Police officer told them to pipe down because their singing was considered an illegal demonstration, as Fox News reports. The students, who are members of the Young America’s Foundation, were visiting the city for a conservative leadership conference.
What law, exactly, was being violated? According to Fox News:
U.S. Park Police confirmed that the students were in violation of federal law and their impromptu performance constituted a demonstration in an area that must remain ‘completely content neutral.’”
Evan Gassman, who was one of the attendees, says of the episode:
This is a perfect example of political correctness run amuck. I would hope that displays of patriotism would be encouraged, not censored.
Personally, I think this is a perfect activity for a tea party event. Get a couple thousand tea partiers to fill the Lincoln, and any other memorial, and sing the national anthem.
I still can't figure out exactly how they have defined the Lincoln memorial as a "completely content neutral" site. I suppose Martin Luther King would be arrested today if he made his "I have a dream" speech there. Or maybe the present class of public servant thinks that the Gettysburg address is content neutral.
This is a regulation that should be violated on a regular basis and bludgeoned out of existence.
Then there is the Public Servant Widget giving us his opinion:
“We need to make certain that all other visitors that don’t want to be a part of that or just choose to be tourists are able to do so in the same light that probably President Lincoln wanted – which is completely content neutral,” he said.I truly doubt that a man who was CinC during the bloodiest conflict on our nation's soil would believe everything should be content neutral. If that had been his belief during the war there would have been no war at all.
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