Air show group should give up costly fight

The Memorial Day weekend air show has become a Boone County tradition. I’ve never attended, but I’ve always thought it was a nice way to get people out to trample the grass growing on the runways of Englewood International Airport. The patriotic, even militaristic, nature of the activities hasn’t bothered me much. What always did bother me, though, was the unconstitutional censoring of protesters’ First Amendment rights. It was not only illegal, but also unwise, for the city of Columbia to conspire with the air show organizers to forbid a hardy handful of antiwar activists from handing out leaflets and circulating petitions.