"What is most definitely not OK is the denial of the First Amendment to any U.S. citizen. You know, the one our Founding Fathers thought was important enough to be first."

While I agree that the First Amendment is in fact the most important, Mr. Olson, like many people, erroneously believes that the order of the amendments in the Bill of Rights has something to do with the degree of relative importance assigned them by the founding fathers.  What is now the first amendment was actually third on the list of twelve amendments presented to the states for confirmation.  If one feels that the list was in order of importance, some research into the first two proposed amendments might prove surprising.