No Laughing Matter

Question: How many Lanark Villagers does it take to take to screw in a light bulb?

Answer: Three. One to stand on a chair to screw in the bulb, a second to pull the chair out from under him and a third to film the entire thing for YouTube.

No wait. Here's another one.

What's the difference between a Lanark Village budget hearing and the Ultimate Fighting Championship?

Answer: The cage.

Think these are even the least bit funny? There's more where they came from.

In fact, ask any longtime local with a passing familiarity of Lanark Village and they are apt to make light of the scrapes and shenanigans often emanating from that far eastern end of the county.

Last week's trial of Bill Snyder is just one more glaring example, prominent as a black eye, on Lanark's history of intensive infighting.

Now no one said politics shouldn't be rough-and-tumble, especially in a village made famous nearly 70 years ago for housing those rugged men who trained in blistering conditions on Carrabelle Beach so they could defeat Germany and Japan, two of the most politically repulsive regimes ever to grace the planet.

Fighting is in the American blood, because we don't take kindly to being dominated, enslaved, bullied, and otherwise threatened, and sometimes talk doesn't cut it. This is a trademark of our country and isn't that the way it should be? Or would you prefer the Notre Dame "Quibblin' Irish?"

There was one thing, however, in Snyder's trial that caught our attention.

In his testimony, Joseph Rowell offered insight into why he accosted Snyder for trying to include him in a videotape of a Lanark Village Water and Sewer District budget hearing.

"Whether I had the right, I did it," said Rowell. "There's First Amendment rights for everybody."

We think that, along with Snyder's lower lip, Rowell nailed it good.

There's First Amendment rights for everybody.

Which brings us first to an important clarification, which is most definitely not to re-try the battery case. We have no desire whatsoever to point out who was right and who was wrong, who hit whom and who was merely defending himself. All that, or at least most of it, was settled in Judge Van Russell's courtroom last week, and that is where the rightness or wrongness of the verdict shall remain.

The point, however, and one not directly addressed in last week's trial, is the First Amendment.

"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."

There it is, right there atop the Top 10 list of Americans' rights. Freedom to exercise our faiths, to speak our minds free of coercion, to publish our thoughts unhindered by shackles, to gather together without the threat of violent reprisal, and to protest a government action when we disagree.

Let's see, with the exception of freedom of religion, that just about addresses everything going on that night in Lanark.

People had gathered together for a budget hearing, regarding a government action many disagreed with and against which many were taking action. They wished to speak their minds freely. Mr. Snyder and the other Concerned Citizens had even gone so far as to post videos of the meeting on You Tube.

In other words, they had a right to be there, they had a right to record the sessions and they had a right to do so "peaceably."

Now it is understandable that an individual may not want to be photographed in such a setting. Journalists every day - and especially in small, close-knit towns where privacy is valued and feelings are respected - bend over backwards every day to accommodate the wishes of the community. Tactful requests are often met with considerate responses.

But, whether or not an individual is a non-biased observer and a respected member of the media, or is a community activist with a cause to champion, the fact remains that freedom of the press is a cherished right not to be taken lightly.

Public meetings are called what they are precisely because they are public, because they are held under the refreshing air of public scrutiny. Every individual has a right to take part, and in doing so, must be willing to give up a piece of their right to privacy. It goes, as they say, with the territory, and there isn't a whole lot more to it.

So, with that in mind, as the village of Lanark moves on from this unfortunate incident, let us look towards the village's many bright spots - the rainbow of colors shown off by Wandering Star quilters last Saturday, the yard sale this Saturday at the American Legion to raise money for cancer survivors in the name of Tonya Bridges, the Tartan Day performance Sunday afternoon in Carrabelle by the Lanark Village Scottish Fiddle Orchestra.

And let's all raise a glass and toast the Constitutional freedoms we all enjoy.