Chilkat Valley News - Serving Haines and Klukwan, Alaska since 1966

Recently a resident put up a Ukrainian flag on borough land with a sign stating “Pray for Ukraine.” Later, two other signs were erected nearby stating “Disband NATO’’ and “Russia Denazify Ukraine.” Someone removed these two signs. This was a violation of the speaker’s First Amendment rights if someone else removed them.

The Supreme Court has ruled that traditional public forums such as parks and sidewalks have “by long tradition” been used for “assembly and debate,” “communicating thoughts between citizens,” and “discussing public questions.” Additionally, a municipality “has no power to restrict expression because of its message, ideas, subject matter, or its content.” But most significantly, government regulation that targets the viewpoint of speech is “the most egregious form of content discrimination.”

The First Amendment protected these two signs. Thus, removing them violated the speaker’s right of free speech, whether removed by the government or by a citizen. The answer here was to counter the message, not remove it. Removing signs with a different viewpoint not only stifles dissent, it stifles debate. Through debate, truth is revealed. And without this open debate, truth is lost and freedom is threatened.

Removing protest signs because of disagreement with the message, speaker, or viewpoint, not only violates the First Amendment, it is Un-American. In fact, stifling dissent is welcomed in countries such as Russia, China, and North Korea. Therefore, in America we must stand up when someone’s free speech rights are violated, whether we agree with the speaker, or not.

Mike Denker