During Donald Trump’s recent rally in Fountain Hills, protesters voiced their displeasure with acts of civil disobedience. As a result, Representative John Kavanagh proposed an amendment to HB2548, which would increase the penalty and fines for acts of civil disobedience.

I grew up in the South in the 1960’s and also lived in two other countries with dictatorships. All three were brutally intolerant of opinions which differed from the government. Freedom of speech, freedom of assembly and civil disobedience from the beliefs was repressed by jail, fines, and brutality.

The Arizona legislators are on the same path that followed in the 1960’s in the South in Selma when the sheriff, the police and the government repressed those who objected to the establishment positions by attacking the dissenters with clubs, dogs, water cannons and imprisonment.

The intolerance of dissent in the HR2548 amendment is the same intolerance for disobedience in the South in the 1960’s and dictatorships in the 1970’s. Whether the South of the 1960’s, the dictators of the 1970’s, or Fountain Hills in 2016, the true measure of a free society is its respect for opinions which differ from the establishment.

The sponsors of the HR2548 amendment believe that freedom applies only to those who agree with them.