Freedom of Speech at Risk in Bordentown NJ

Bordentown New Jersey is a tiny little town with a fascinating history.  The 2006 census estimated the town’s population at 3,953.  Past residents of the town include Thomas Paine and Joseph Bonaparte.

Bordentown is in the news again because one caustic individual published criticisms of Bordentown mayor James E. Lynch at BordentownMayor.com, BordentownWatch.com, and BordentownMayorReallySucks.com.  The mayor responded by introducing a resolution to the city council to pressure the web sites hosting company to take the site down.  The council approved the measure by a vote of 2 to 1.  City officials contacted BlueHost (based in Utah) and convinced them to take the website offline.

Apparently it’s that easy to squash freedom of speech and violate the First Amendment rights of individual citizens in the United States.  I can tell you that after this event not only will I not be traveling to Bordentown, I will also not be doing business with BlueHost.

As he was squashing freedom of speech, Mayor Lynch stated “I’m not going to go down the freedom of speech road.” This would be similar, I guess, to someone kicking a puppy and saying “I’m not going down the kicking puppies road.”

The citizens of Bordentown should be terribly embarrassed and will hopefully replace the mayor in the next election. As Thomas Paine wrote, “He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty, he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself.”

Meanwhile, all the website owner needs to do is to find a new web host, preferably one overseas. A good host in the Netherlands will simply ignore ridiculous threats from self-important busybodies.