Stephen D. Solomon, author and Marjorie Deane Professor of Journalism at NYU, attends the National Conference on the First Amendment as a speaker on the panel “The First Amendment in American History: Five Pillars of Freedom” Sunday Oct. 21, 2018, at Duquesne University’s Power Center Ballroom Uptown. ÒWe tend to look at rights in the first amendment sort of individually. Press, speech and so forth. When you look at if from the founders point of view they saw I think the first amendment as laying out rights that told a narrative of American self governance. So thereÕs an internal logic about this. It starts with protection of religious liberty and that really involves people kind of trying to figure out where they fit in the universe, perhaps their relationship to a higher power. Those kinds of ideas. Then it moves on to protect the freedom of speech. The exchange of ideas between two people or in a group, such as we have here. The next right protected is, freedom of the press, which is the institutional means to get those ideas out there to a very large audience. So you can see thereÕs a logic here. So once youÕve done that youÕve exchanged ideas, created a market place, itÕs out there, whatÕs next? WhatÕs next is political action. And so you protect the right to assemble. To find like minded people get together in the streets or wherever and demonstrate, protest for what purpose. To petition the government for a redress of grievances. And so in 45 words you move through the conception of what American self governance is. And it also suggests that today, looking at these rights individually we may be missing a larger point which is that if you attack one of those rights, rights of a free press, you not only affect the press rights, but you affect the entire trajectory of thought and opinion and political action that the first amendment was intended to produce by the founders.Ó (Jessie Wardarski/Post-Gazette)