A beacon of freedom? Not so much.

CNN and the Washington Post are reporting that anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan was arrested tonight while attending the State of the Union address in Washington. Apparently, her crime was to wear a shirt with an anti-war slogan on it while she sat in the gallery as a guest of a member of the House.

She opened her jacket to reveal a T-shirt that, according to a supporter, gave the number of U.S. war dead and asked, "How many more?"

She was also boisterous, according to U.S. Capitol Police Chief Terrance W. Gainer, and after she ignored instructions to close her jacket and quiet down, she was escorted out and arrested. Demonstrating in the House gallery is prohibited.

Boisterous, eh? Is it a felony or a misdemeanor to be boisterous these days? Seems to me there were more than a few members of the Senate and House who were a little too boisterous tonight. Were they arrested, too? Didn't think so.

President Bush tonight essentially called the U.S. a beacon of democracy and freedom around the world. But is there any reason why the other 6 billion or so inhabitants of our planet should take his words seriously when people are being arrested here for speaking - or displaying - what's on their minds? Are our leaders so incapable of listening to other, dissenting points of view that they feel the need to quash that dissent?

The bottom line is that President Bush and his administration are setting an undeniably poor example for burgeoning democracies around the world. Whether it's stamping out dissent, painting opponents as traitors, or authorizing illegal spying on Americans' conversations and other communications, this administration is tearing apart the very fabric of our Constitution bit by bit.

As a true American patriot once said, "Dissent is the highest form of patriotism." If only President Bush and others who support him would take those words of Thomas Jefferson to heart. Sadly, they appear both unwilling to do so and incapable of understanding why it's important. And bit by sickly bit our own freedom and our democratic ideals whither away.