{"id":13785,"date":"2026-01-30T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/exercising-our-first-amendment-rights\/"},"modified":"2026-03-25T19:32:04","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T19:32:04","slug":"exercising-our-first-amendment-rights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/exercising-our-first-amendment-rights\/","title":{"rendered":"Exercising our First Amendment rights"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=3ba4ce41-a358-5d9b-b360-ebd942a1f4df&#038;function=cover&#038;type=preview&#038;source=false&#038;width=2000\" width=\"1680\" height=\"958\" alt=\"\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\" \/><figcaption><span class=\"credit\">cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The American Revolution didn\u2019t end with the July 4, 1776, signing of the Declaration of Independence \u2013 it was just the beginning of an eight-year struggle that concluded in 1783. To prevent misuse of government power, the first 10 amendments to the Constitution were drafted, taking effect on Dec. 15, 1791. The First Amendment guarantees our rights to freedom of religion, speech, press, assembly and petition, stating, \u201cCongress shall make no law \u2026 abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people to peaceably assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Exercising that right on Saturday, Jan. 10, I joined others on Main Street in Cortez to honor the tragic loss of Ms. Renee Good. We protesters are sometimes subjected to cursing, fist-shaking, one-finger gestures, loud engines, unlawful speeding and even \u201crolling coal\u201d from those who disagree with our views. But as citizens, we are entitled to stand for a cause without fear of real or implied threats. Thankfully, Cortez law enforcement monitors the situation and responds to blatant abuses.<\/p>\n<p>Following the tradition of our early American leaders, we will continue to exercise our First Amendment rights \u2013 speaking out against injustices, expressing opinions, maintaining visibility and declaring our values \u2013 while keeping Cortez the jewel that it is.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Theresa Goldstrand<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em id=\"emphasis-dcf15f1c4e45d04a07ea0755572aa77d\">Cortez<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The American Revolution didn\u2019t end with the July 4, 1776, signing of the Declaration of Independence \u2013 it was just the beginning of an eight-year struggle that concluded in 1783. To prevent misuse of government power, the first 10 amendments to the Constitution were drafted, taking effect on Dec. 15, 1791. The First Amendment [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13329,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[125],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-13785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-newsletter-opinion"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13785"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13785\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19159,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13785\/revisions\/19159"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13785"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=13785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}