There is no such thing as free speech — it comes with a price. I know, I know, we're told in civics class as kids that we were all entitled to "freedom of speech" by the first amendment of the Bill of Rights. How'd that freedom of speech work for you the first time you told your teacher you weren't going to do something and that she couldn't make you?

The first amendment of the Bill of Rights reads that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or the press; of the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

In reality, there are consequences to actions, words and sometimes even for how one expresses an opinion. We all know that you can't yell "Fire!" in a crowded theater or scream "I'm going to kill the president” on Main Street, USA.

Last Saturday, a handful of people from Citizens' Alliance for a Clean, Healthy Economy (CACHE) were trying to peaceably assemble in their own way during the Yadkin Valley Pumpkin Festival. CACHE has been vocal in its opposition to the building of Fibrowatt — a proposed energy facility that would burn poultry waste and other byproducts.

The group originally wanted to have a booth at the Pumpkin Festival but was denied by the Yadkin Valley Chamber of Commerce, the organization that put on the event.

According to Pumpkin Festival president Jerry Randall, "The festival is about trying to do something fun and good for the public, it's not the place for people to push an agenda."

That makes sense, and it should be up to the discretion of an organization holding an event to decide to whom it will allow a platform to promote its product or service.

People had a fun time despite the rain, and the chamber, yet again, put on a great festival.

The problem arose when the people from CACHE showed up on Main Street at the Pumpkin Festival.

According to a release given to The Tribune by Betty Tesh, she, Sam Tesh and Joan Vasata had signs in opposition of Fibrowatt during the festival, were holding information sheets, and were wearing neon orange stickers on their clothing and bags that identified them as members of CACHE.

According to the Teshes, they were all threatened with arrest from the Elkin Police Department if they did not stop, and hide their clothing.

We tried to verify this story with the Elkin Police Department, but were greeted with no comments and were told that there would be no comment until a meeting with the town attorney.

If the account from CACHE is correct, this is a big problem.

It's easy to understand why the Yadkin Valley Chamber of Commerce did not want a group downtown that could be considered "controversial" and make things a little uncomfortable for festivalgoers, but it's completely off the wall to think that someone could be threatened with arrest for wearing a sticker that in no way has hate speech on it.

Seriously? Neon orange may be a little tacky, but the stickers only had the name of the group, the acronym and the group's URL.

Fashion faux paux, maybe, hateful, not so much.

Once again, we would love to know the police department's take on why these people needed to be told they would get to wear the shiny bracelets and taken for a ride for wearing a sticker.

As it is understandable that the chamber would not want CACHE to have a booth, it is also understandable if there was some sort of misunderstanding in the police’s response to CACHE. We want to give the officer that approached CACHE the benefit of the doubt because we appreciate how difficult and thankless the job of the police can be.

This event could be an outstanding teaching opportunity for the department.

The debate about Fibrowatt is an important one, and one that continues to take place in the area and we will continue to explore it in future editions of this newspaper.

But this issue is different.

Political and social philosopher Joel Feinberg coined the term offense principle in regard to violation of free speech and expression. In a nutshell, free speech that could be considered offensive can be limited based on the extent, duration and social value of the speech, how easily it can be avoided, speaker's motives, intensity of the offense, number of people offended and interest of the community.

To summarize, if CACHE's message at the Pumpkin Festival included a string of four-letter words, people couldn't get away from them, they chased people down yelling at them about the evils of Fibrowatt or if the could make a killing financially if their efforts were successful, then it would make sense that voices were silenced.

From all accounts, nothing of the sort happened and they should have been allowed to, at the very least, enjoy the Pumpkin Festival with their stickers in plain view. —KPS