Union City, Tenn. – On Saturday, September 24, 2022, the Freedom Forum, a nonpartisan nonprofit foundation that fosters First Amendment freedoms for all, hosted its inaugural First Amendment Day Festival at Discovery Park of America in Union City, Tenn. More than 3,000 guests experienced a variety of family-friendly, First Amendment-themed games, trivia, crafts and conversations.
“The beauty of the First Amendment is that it’s yours, it’s not anybody else’s,” said Bret Baier, host of Special Report with Bret Baier on the Fox News Channel. “There’s a lot of power in knowing that you can determine your own future based on that.”
During the festival, The Gatlin Brothers, performed some of their biggest hits including “All the Gold in California,” “Night Time Magic” and “Broken Lady.”
On Friday, groups of students grades five through twelve and college students from the University of Tennessee at Martin experienced a day of fun and interactive activities on the topic of the First Amendment. They were led by members of the Freedom Forum team who traveled to Union City from Washington, D.C. where the organization is headquartered.
Also on Friday, Gene Policinski, Senior Fellow for the First Amendment for the Freedom Forum spoke at the Union City Rotary. Policinski, a journalist and a founding editor of USA Today, writes, lectures and is interviewed regularly on news media and First Amendment issues. He noted, “It gives me hope that we have not changed those 45 words of the First Amendment since 1791. I think the middle is growing — the group that just wants to sit down and talk this out.”