Freedom of Speech for the Community

Regarding the Bell Chimes that play every hour on the hour here in the borough, the Norwich Bulletin in a December 11, 2006 editorial stated, “Church-state flap likely moot in Jewett City.”

The Bulletin opinion may have been based on the fact that it was determined that the bell chimes where actually owned by the residents and taxpayers of the Borough and purchased at the direction of the Board of Warden and Burgesses of Jewett City. Any suggestion that residents of Jewett City should be required to give-up ownership of the bell chimes is short-sighted, and does not respect the residents of the Borough or their right to determine what is best for Jewett City.

Besides, prohibiting governmental entanglement in the free exercise of religion, the First Amendment, guarantees the freedom of speech and of the press. In other words, Jewett City residents have the Constitutionally protected right to direct the government to purchase bell chimes, locate them in a church belfry, and have their elected officials select melodies, so long as, the government is not engaged in promoting religion.

If the Borough of Jewett City, by simply locating government owned and operated bell chimes in the belfry of the Jewett Baptist Church, is “respecting an establishment of religion,” then, countless other government funded programs that are conducted on property owned by synagogues, mosques, and churches are in jeopardy of being discontinued. Often times, the community food pantry that distributes government purchased commodities to the hungry is located in a religious house of worship. That these programs are within the requirements of the Constitution is a well settled matter.

The American Atheists are challenging song selections by characterizing them as being Christian. The bell chimes play musical notes which are arranged or composed into melodies; thereby, leaving the decision to associate any particular set of lyrics, whether they be religious or otherwise, up to the choosing of the listener. Many so-called religious melodies where composed long before they were borrowed by writers of religious hymns. Prior to branding a melody with the stamp of “religious origin,” consideration must be given to which came first: the melody or the lyric.

Lacking any specific evidence that a melody is of religious origins, the residents of the Borough should continue to peal the bells more loud and strong. Let the collective voice of the residents resound through out the Borough with a melody of freedom.