Hightower Lowdown

What is it about the First Amendment that confuses today's political elite and their police agents?

Amendment Number One is a pretty straightforward declaration of the people's fundamental political rights: freedom to speak out publicly, to assemble, to confront officials with our grievances. It does not say that these freedoms can be eliminated any time they might pose an inconvenience or embarrassment to those in charge. Yet it's become commonplace for the Secret Service and police to exclude even the mildest protest from presidential campaign events.

Last month, a 60-year-old librarian named Carol Kreck attended a John McCain "town hall meeting" in Denver. Held at a city-owned hall, the event was billed as open to the public. But it was not open to Ms. Kreck. She stood quietly in the public plaza outside the hall holding a handmade sign that simply said, "McCain = Bush."

Her silent (and polite) exercise of First Amendment rights, however, so offended Republican officials that McCain's Secret Service detail had her arrested for "trespassing" and escorted off the public premises.

Also last month, the Democrats announced that citizen demonstrations at their convention in Denver will be in a fenced-off enclosure. These "freedom cages," as they've been dubbed, will be out of sight and out of earshot of the Democratic delegates and dignitaries--so as not to muss up their reverie with any, you know, democracy.

When the parties and police can limit our "freedoms" to protest that can't be seen or heard, we no longer have those freedoms--and it's time for a little rebellion, just as

Thomas Jefferson said would be necessary every now and then.