This is in response to your editorial on Memorial Day. You claim that the First Amendment is the most important. I feel the Second Amendment is the most important. It is the defender of the rest and guarantees that our freedoms will never be taken away.

An armed person is a citizen. An un-armed person is a subject.

You further claim that people who speak against the “males only” policy of a golf club or protest the war are derided and their rights are trampled upon.

Martha Burke was forced to protest away from the club’s entrance and you claim that it was a violation of her rights. Why did you not speak out when pro-life protesters were forced away from abortion clinics? Is it not the same?

The public boycotting products from the Dixie Chicks is our way of expressing our right to free speech. We are all accountable for what we say.

An individual’s right to speech cannot interfere with my rights. When they lay down in the road in front of my car my liberties are being violated.

When they stop shipments to arms plants, they are now terrorists and should be treated as such. These laws are still on the books.

Then you mentioned the detainees at Guantanamo Bay. They have no rights! They are enemy combatants, not Americans, and should not receive the same rights as us.

They are fortunate to be alive in the hands of our soldiers. Would they extend the same?

Paul Duquette,

North Monmouth