Has Hopatcong Become Less Friendly to the Right to Assemble?

All great organizations do not start big.  Most started off at a grassroots level with simply a group getting together to promote a common interest, solve a problem or protest an injustice.  In the past there was always some common place where people could meet up.  However, it’s becoming harder to get started or feel inspired because the odds are you won’t find an open meeting place. 

The first to go with budget cuts were free meeting places and Board of Education-sponsored adult education.  Hopatcong has lost both.  There once was a time when Hopatcong had an Adult Education program.  It may have been a limited offering, but it presented an opportunity for local adults to meet up and learn something beneficial.  It often had a local business or professional giving the course and from it local knowledge and information was freely exchanged. 

The earliest casualty was the administration budget for Adult Education.  Once they were dropped they were never picked up by the town.   Instead of our borough finding a home for them under the Parks and Recreation budget (as other towns have), these programs just vanished.

Local churches and nonprofits with their own facilities have been benevolent in opening their doors to groups and programs that are charitable in nature.  However, if you want to find a small meeting room to get a group started, you better start looking for a room at the nearest County Library. 

Recently, our civic center has changed over its designation to a Senior Center where other groups no longer have equal scheduling rights.  But the most counteractive measure in forming a new community group is – A group must now provide proof of liability insurance to use our public facilities.    

In the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights of the United States Constitution it states: "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"

In Hopatcong finding a place to assemble and practice these rights is getting rather difficult since you might want to find a meeting room for this purpose.  If you are not part of a preferential group or are unable to produce insurance papers to reserve a meeting room, the First Amendment can be quite an elusive proposition. 

Do you think it is easy or hard to get a group assembled in Hopatcong to exercise the 1st Amendment?