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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?