PLATTEVILLE, Sept. 16 — Thursday is a day that should be celebrated more than it is across this nation.

In the 250 years since the American colonists told King George III that keeping a colony 4,200 miles away by boat was madness, many soon-to-be-former colonies have declared independence from their soon-to-be-former colonial masters.

Eleven years and one war later came what distinguishes the U.S. from any country of the late 18th century, the Constitution. The concept of the common people being able to elect their leaders (instead of, as in parliamentary systems, one representative) was not commonplace. Nor was the concept of the common people having rights given to them not by government (which can take away any rights it gives out) but by their creator.

Four years later the Bill of Rights became the law of the land, because the Constitution didn’t adequately spell out what the “certain inalienable rights” listed in the Declaration of Independence were, and needed to spell out more clearly what the government cannot do to its citizens.

Every once in a while, even in a place as relatively small as Platteville, we get a lesson in how free speech works. Last week The Journal reported that the Platteville Dairy Days committee decided that a bus promoting the pro-life, or anti-abortion-rights, cause (depending on whom you ask and your preferred phrasing) sponsored by Grant County Right to Life should not be in the parade with its photos of fetuses on the side. (Photos from the late 1970s, I was told, who are now people around 50 years old.) GCRTL decided it did not want the bus in the parade without those visible photos (or the options the committee reportedly gave the group) and marched in the parade without the bus, parking it at St. Mary Catholic Church.

Of course, everyone gets to express an opinion, especially online, where there are few consequences for opinions that sometimes should be kept to yourselves. Some people felt those photos in a family-friendly parade are inappropriate, including parents who may not have wanted to explain to their children at that moment photos of fetuses. Others felt the committee’s decision amounted to censorship, and at least a few announced online that they were going to boycott Dairy Days. (Whether or not they had ever heard of Dairy Days or know where Platteville is.)

This was not a specific First Amendment issue since Dairy Days is not run by government. (Thankfully.) The issue was about competing free-expression rights, including the right to not be subjected to a political argument in the middle of a family-focused event, as if one of the most thorny political issues of today will be decided by an entry in a parade. Those who claimed they would boycott Dairy Days (see the last sentence of the last paragraph for its disclaimer) may labor under the delusion that everything in their world should adhere to their own worldview and become angry when life proves that is not the case. (And if they were trolling, they should get a life.)

You may not agree with the Dairy Days decision or what GCRTL wanted to do. So ask yourself: What if a health-oriented group brought pickets to Legion Park claiming that cheese curds, cream puffs, funnel cakes and so on shouldn’t be sold at Dairy Days because they’re unhealthy? (Possibly hard to believe, but today anything seems possible.) What if animal rights activities protested the animal shows? What if environmentalist groups protested the car show? What if religious groups protested a Saturday night entertainer due to the entertainer’s music content? (Go to a high school basketball game, hear the high school band play the J. Geils Band’s “Centerfold,” and then explain to your kids what a centerfold is, or was.)

I’m not sure that this is a new trend, but it seems to be a current and increasing trend for people to selectively support free expression based on whether said expression adheres to their own worldview, sometimes expressed as whether an instance of free speech is “appropriate.” I was at the Grant County GOP headquarters after the parade as Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Tiffany was speaking. At one point someone in a black car drove by and loudly expressed his contempt for Tiffany and the current president. Some readers might think that was OK. Would they think that if someone expressed his or her public contempt of their preferred candidates?

Dairy Days, and the Belmont School and Community Fair this week, are great ways to say goodbye to summer when the weather is still summer-like. Turning Dairy Days into a political football insults all of its volunteers and the students who work on projects for the shows. We are getting enough politics as it is every time you turn on a TV or go online, and that’s only going to get worse.