on 7/5/04 10:59 AM, Jon Kerr wrote: > Interesting. Apparently free speech continues to be arbitrary at the Farmers > Market.
> A few years ago I witnessed the same manager (Jack Gerten) authoritatively > telling volunteers politely passing out anti-stadium literature that they > were not allowed on Market grounds. This happened even while there was a > Twins entourage, including Tony Oliva, holding forth in the middle of the > Market. This was in the middle of the referendum debate and was clearly a > "political event" being welcomed by the Market. > Eventually the Market Manager relented when several of us suggested there > might be First Amendment issues. Both parties coexisted nicely and didn't > appear like any shoppers were being hindered from purchasing their zuchinis > or free range chickens. So at the time I gave Gerten the benefit of the > doubt and hoped he'd learned a lesson. > But it does appear that free speech continues to depend on what the Market > Manager decides is allowable on a particular occasion. One wonders what > other arbitrariness is involved in the operation of our Farmers Market? Who > is on the board and who do they represent? Who actually controls policy on > what is clearly public space receiving public subsidy and is seeking even > more to open a new indoor market? > Jon Kerr > West Side Similar inconsistent and hypocritical responses from Jack Gerten, who owns the corporate Gerten Nurseries, might easily be expected if any of Minnesota's elected officials were to move in with their entourages and "accost" Farmers' Market customers. The mere presence of political activity in public forum is going to elicit reaction along and on both ends of the ideological spectrum. Most customers need merely to say, as Erik Hare observes, "No, thank you," or "Sure."or grimace and walk away. Complaining to management is inevitable. Doesn't mean management has a right to use the few complaints it gets to curtail 1st Amendment freedoms of all the others present. Customers have as much a right to say yes to canvassers and surveyors as they do to complain or say no. And the canvassers and surveyors - trained to a fare-thee-well, as I recall, to be courteous and as unobtrusive as possible - would hardly be supported by their parent organization if their behavior would bring it a bad name. All this to say, it's quite obvious it's the organization and its message or mission to which Gerten and a few customers object, not the fact of the survey. What is truly sad about these anecdotes is the increasingly pervasive notion that freedom of speech only entails my freedom to speak and not yours if I don't agree with the content of your message. And where did that notion get its seeds? Right out of this nation's law enforcement community, aided and abetted by an administration that labels dissenters "traitors", and which abandons its role as freedoms enforcers, and believes dissent is an excuse to bash heads, arrest and carry off even the most peaceful of such dissenters, believing themselves at war with their fellow countrymen and women. This is why the Jack Gertens of the world feel free to harass the lowly campaign worker with whom he disagrees - no matter how public the space may be or how much the majority of shoppers are generally unaffected by their presence. This is as systemic as it is dangerous. Erik is on the money. We must descend on this private institution which operates at the pleasure of the city, our city, and with our money as their subsidies. That, too, seems to get lost in the possessiveness manifest by the Gertens of the world as well. It's mine, not yours, even when taxpayers foot the bill. Andy Driscoll Crocus Hill/Ward 2 ------ _____________________________________________ To Join: St. Paul Issues Forum Rules Discussion Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] _____________________________________________ NEW ADDRESS FOR LIST: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe, modify subscription, or get your password - visit: http://www.mnforum.org/mailman/listinfo/stpaul Archive Address: http://www.mnforum.org/mailman/private/stpaul/
