Article I: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

I have been a resident of Fountain Hills and have subscribed to The Fountain Hills Times since June of 1978. First I review the front page, then go to the obituaries, and next the opinion page. This is most of the time the pulse of our community. Also, sometimes the only way our local leaders get to hear the views on things that concern our citizens.

Because we are a free country, you have the right not to read the opinion letters. But you should not have the right to control or stop them. I myself find one of the letter writers to be self-serving and most of the time very boring. So when I see his name I just skip to the next letter. However, I do respect his right to write them.

Maybe some of the people who oppose the letters would like to have a paper controlled by a government? How about Pravda, the Russian paper, wait a minute…they stopped printing it in 1991.

When we the people stop believing and enforcing our Constitution we will no longer be a free country.