Monday, July 02, 2007

Free speech ends at park entrance

I can't wait to wear my "Impeach Bush & Cheney" T-shirt to Rocky Mountain National Park this summer.

If I do, some goofball park ranger at the Fall River Visitor's Center will strip me of it and make me stand in the corner.

Just look at what happened to two teens who tried to bring a peace message to RMNP (courtesy of Denver Post reporter Kieran Nicholson):

Two young peace activists said they were stopped at an entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park on Sunday and ordered to remove peace placards on their chests before entering the park.

Mike Israel, 18, and Ashley Casale, 19, are on a "March for Peace" from San Francisco to Washington, D.C.

The pair said they were stopped by a park ranger at a gate beyond Grand Lake and told they couldn't go inside the park wearing the placards, which read: "March 4 Peace."

"They stopped us and said our signs are too political," said Casale, a student a Wesleyan University in Connecticut.

The peace activists were detained for several hours, Casale said.

Eventually, the pair agreed not to wear the placards but wrote the same message on their T-shirts and continued their journey.

Park officials could not be reached for comment this morning.

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