Free as in … ?
(Via a Machall rant) On September 11, 2005, there was a march from the Pentagon to the Mall, sponsored by the Department of Defense, to show support for victims of the 2001 terrorist attacks and for the US soldiers currently fighting in Iraq. The march had extraordinarily restrictive security — quoth the Washington Post (Sept. 9 2005, page A1)
Organizers […] are taking extraordinary measures to control participation in the march and concert, with the route fenced off and lined with police and the event closed to anyone who does not register online by 4:30 p.m. today.
The march, sponsored by the Department of Defense, will wend its way from the Pentagon to the Mall along a route that has not been specified but will be lined with four-foot-high snow fencing to keep it closed and “sterile,” said Allison Barber, deputy assistant secretary of defense.
The U.S. Park Police will have its entire Washington force of several hundred on duty and along the route, on foot, horseback and motorcycles and monitoring from above by helicopter. Officers are prepared to arrest anyone who joins the march or concert without a credential and refuses to leave, said Park Police Chief Dwight E. Pettiford.
The punchline? The march was called the America Supports You Freedom Walk.
Now, the word free has a number of meanings in the English language. There is free as in “free beer”. There is free as in “free speech”. Until now, however, I was not aware of the usage free as in “’sterile’, undisclosed location, fenced in, with police helicopters circling overhead”. George Orwell would be proud.