First Amendment

1. Source:
What We Owe Iraqis. September 10, 2010
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/09/AR2010090905389.html

2. Constitutional Connection:
"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."

3. Explanation of Connection:
Thirty-five years ago, two young Foreign Service officers went AWOL from Henry Kissinger's staff at the State Department to go to Vietnam in the days before the collapse of Saigon.our action drew stern rebukes and orders that we be arrested and returned to the United States. they had each been posted in Vietnam. We went back there at our own expense and in defiance of our superiors because we were alarmed at the lack of planning on the part of our government regarding the well-being of our Vietnamese employees and allies as the end to the war approached. We believed that the United States had a moral obligation and a humanitarian responsibility to rescue those who had worked and sided with us on the battlefields of that unwinnable conflict. I noted the great pride that we all should feel over our response to the humanitarian crisis faced at the end of the war in Vietnam. Whatever one may feel about our involvement in that conflict, we rose, albeit belatedly, to the challenge of the humanitarian consequences of our actions. We should do no less in Iraq.


This article is a great example of the First Amendent. The First Amendment gives U.S. citizens the right to freedom of press. The author of this newpaper article demonstrated it by freely communicating and expressing through electronic media. Throughout this article there are no government interference, the author posted his own opinion. He also expresses his freedom of speech. Eventhough it isnt verbal it is still his words.

Without freedom of press or freedom of speech i believe there would be more prisons throughout the nation. One of underlying reasons the thirteen colonies came  here from Britain is because of their lack of freedom of speech. They didnt want to be under monarchy. They wanted their voice to be heard. And because of that i believe they invluded freedom of speech foremost in the making of the constitution.