Freedom and Broadway

It is right and necessary to protect the most basic American rights in a famous commons like New York City's Times Square. Free speech and the right to gather peaceably should not be limited by gun-carrying police, or "renta-cops" hired by private agencies, or by unreasonable demands for permits, registrations and the like. Our mothers and fathers fought for the rights of the U. S. Constitution, and that is permit enough. Broadway is a street, not an aisle in a super mall. Broadway belongs to all of us.

The ability to speak out, to "petition for redress of grievances," as the 1st Amendment says -- helps us with challenges to democracy down the line, in areas far away from our speaker's corners. Keep public space public -- don't assume that stopping crime must also involve a shutdown of our basic freedoms. Just the opposite effect takes place. If freedom of expression is curtailed in public, then it is more likely that we will have more crimes like slush funds in the city council, like lobbyist pay-offs in the state government, and most damaging of all -- the control of our institutions by billionaires. They have made our democracy a source of cynicism and laughter.

Open up the parks and squares, the streets and sidewalks. Stop the record-pace "stop and frisk" harassment of people of color. Our neighborhoods are healthy, better for children and for families, when citizens are not afraid of tickets and fines, of stops and intimidation. When we are silenced, then the landlords and developers know they can pressure us. In silence, the epidemic of evictions and foreclosures continues, the small shops and local manufacturing harassed by a bully market. If we lose our strong American voice, we will lose our city! We stay free because we can shout together, out in the open air, "Freedom!"

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