ChrisWeigant.com is proud to announce that our much-beloved resident cartoonist C.W. Cunningham has been honored by the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression, by being featured in their "Jefferson Muzzles" awards column.

Cunningham did not win a Muzzle award, since the "awards" are ignoble in nature, handed out to the most blatant violators of free speech during the past year. The actual award (which was number one on their list) was given jointly to the Democratic and Republican Parties, for their "free speech zones" at last year's national conventions.

Cunningham's cartoon originally ran on this site September 19, 2007, and is reproduced below for your enjoyment:

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From the Jefferson Center's website, some information about their organization:

The Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression is a unique organization, devoted solely to the defense of free expression in all its forms. While its charge is sharply focused, the Center's mission is broad. It is as concerned with the musician as with the mass media, with the painter as with the publisher, and as much with the sculptor as the editor.

Located in Charlottesville, Virginia, the Center enjoys close ties to the University of Virginia, but is an autonomous, not-for-profit entity. Its independence is assured by an outstanding Board of Trustees. The Board's members reflect a broad spectrum of views, yet share a commitment to protecting the right of others to express views different from their own. Indeed, recognizing that threats to free expression come from all parts of the political spectrum, the Center maintains a nonpartisan stance in all that it does.

Since its founding in 1990, the Center has fulfilled its mission through a wide range of programs in education and the arts, and active participation in judicial and legislative matters involving free expression. Each year on or near April 13 (the anniversary of the birth of Thomas Jefferson) the Center focuses national attention on especially egregious or ridiculous affronts to free expression by awarding Jefferson Muzzles to responsible individuals or organizations.

From this year's Jefferson Muzzles awards page (which prominently displays Cunningham's cartoon), excerpts from their number one choice:

Straw hats, balloons, placards with candidates names and political slogans, cartoon-like renderings of donkeys and elephants, thousands of people in large cavernous halls or arenas: these are but a few of the images associated with the National Conventions organized every four years by Democrats and Republicans to nominate their respective candidates for President and Vice President. Unfortunately, in recent years another image has emerged as a regular feature of the Conventions: "free speech zones," government designated and controlled spaces that are the closest point to convention sites from which protesters can convey their views, often out of sight or sound of convention delegates.

The seeds from which the 2008 convention free speech zones sprouted were the determinations by the Department of Homeland Security that each of the conventions was a "National Special Security Event." This designation authorized the United States Secret Service as the lead agency to design and implement, in conjunction with the host cities and the conventions' organizers, security measures for the two events. Although court challenges to the security measures planned for both conventions failed, the political parties acquiescence to such measures, and their failure to criticize the harsh imposition of the measures during the conventions, substantiates a view held by some that free speech is an annoyance to be accommodated as little as possible rather than a constitutional right integral to the democratic process. Imbued with such a view, it is only a short step for police to equate lawful dissent with illegal disruption, and to see press coverage of protests as interference rather than a fundamental First Amendment freedom.

. . .

It is understandable that in this post 9-11 world many feel the need for heightened security at large events such as the National Conventions. Yet any efforts undertaken in pursuit of such security must fully recognize First Amendment freedoms. It is naive to expect that such recognition will come from those whose primary job is to maintain security. Rather, proper accommodation of free speech rights will occur only when our political leaders make it a priority, a task neither Democrats nor Republicans appear willing to take on. For their mutual failure to make the preservation of First Amendment freedoms a priority during their 2008 conventions, the Democratic and Republican National Parties jointly earn a 2009 Jefferson Muzzle.

We strongly urge everyone to read the full article, or (at the very least) check out the graphic which accompanies the following, which simply must be seen to be believed:

Subsequent to the convention, the Denver Police Protective Association, a union representing most of Denver's 1,400 police, made available to its members and others a "commemorative" DNC T-shirt featuring a baseball-bat wielding policeman and the slogan "WE GET UP EARLY to BEAT the Crowds 2008 DNC."

We here at ChrisWeigant.com invite everyone to join with us in congratulating C.W. Cunningham for the honor of festooning the Jefferson Muzzle awards with his incisive visual commentary on the free speech zone situation. And we offer our hearty support for the goals of the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression, which this site also fully and strongly supports.

[Note: We have also added a link to the Jefferson Center to our blogroll as well, so everyone can easily find their site in the future.]

-- Chris Weigant