We have finally learned what, in this day and age, can get students thrown off of federal property—singing the National Anthem. “A group of high school students attending a conservative leadership conference in Washington, D.C. said they were ordered by a security guard to stop singing the national anthem during a June 25 visit to the Lincoln Memorial,” Todd Starnes reported on Fox News yesterday.
“They told them to stop singing,” said Evan Gassman, a spokesman for the Young America’s Foundation, which sponsored the conference. “I was taken aback.”
“You wouldn’t expect a display of national patriotism to be censored.” The cops told them that they had to be “content-neutral.”
“The area they were standing in and singing is an area that is restricted for this type of activity,” Sgt. David Schlosser explained. “The United States Park Police is absolutely content-neutral when it comes to any sort of demonstrations in these areas.”
Thus, do gamblers at a horse race have a right that patriotic youth at the Lincoln Memorial don’t.
Malcolm A. Kline is the Executive Director of Accuracy in Academia.
