What The Marketing People Deleted From The First Amendment

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There are very few amongst us

who can quote verbatim

the entire  First Amendment

to the Constitution

of the United States

I am not one of them

But we all know

that it gives us

FREEDOM OF RELIGION

and 

FREEDOM OF SPEECH

et al

Those two pairs of three words

are emblazoned on the skull

of every American citizen

and non-citizen

The Institute of Inane Research 

has determined

that additional Freedoms

(or corollaries to those Freedoms)

were proposed in 1791

when James Madison

wrote

"The Bill of Rights"

 

We have

FREEDOM OF RELIGION

but it was suggested

that it be adjoined with

FREEDOM OF TOLERANCE

so as to avoid friction

between people

of different religions

 

We have 

FREEDOM OF SPEECH

but it was suggested 

that it be adjoined with

FREEDOM OF SILENCE

so as to avoid

too many people

speaking at the same time

 

The Silence

would give us time

to absorb

what has just been said 

 

The United States of America

was a mere teenager

when the Bill of Rights

was written

 

We were only fifteen years old

 

The Marketing Department

Founding Fathers

of the United States

did not want Madison

to include the adjoining Freedoms

because they compromised

FREEDOM OF RELIGION

and 

FREEDOM OF SPEECH

 

However.

imagine the corollary

FREEDOM OF TOLERANCE

!!!

It would mean that you

could go to your neighbor's church

even though it believed in things

dramatically different

from your own church

(and vice versa)

 

After their church service,

they would serve

a continental breakfast

including foods

you could never pronounce

but all you would say was

Yummy Yummy Yummy

Can I please have

a second serving

 

Imagine

the American classroom

if students practiced

FREEDOM OF SILENCE

whenever the teachers

were trying to teach them

 

Then and only then 

would our students

be as smart as

any other students 

 in any other country

 

  What a wonderful thing

those compromising Freedoms

would have been

If only there had been

—in 1791—

some Founding Mothers

in the United States

•••

©  PAULOLIVERIO ©

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