I’m all for letting your views be known – whether through weblogs, letters to the editor, (my personal favorite) buttonholing strangers at parties, or the old standby of protest rallies/marches. My third post on this blog, way back on October 3 of last year, said things like “I have to respect people who want to peaceably assemble to make a political statement” and “I bring this up just because this is America, and the two events [protest rally and Leukemia walk] were different expressions of civic mindedness American style, part of the warp and woof of community. In different ways, they are why I love this country.” I draw the line at protests that aim to disrupt the lives of people who have nothing to do with the thing being protested against – such as protestors against a war shutting down a highway.
Dissent is as American as apple pie, and equally heroic in this country. There are generally no real costs to dissent in this country, unlike many other countries. You and your family can be imprisoned, tortured, murdered even in countries like Cuba or Iraq if you dissent. You can stand in front of the White House and express your opinion that Bush is another Hitler all you want, and nothing will happen to you, except perhaps other people will express their opinion of you. And frankly, isn’t it their right to voice their opinion of you, as it is your right to voice your opinion or whomever or whatever? If someone says they think you are an idiot, you are not being repressed, you are not being silenced. There is no bravery in dissent in this country, no extra worth in dissenting views. Sure, the majority isn’t always right, but then neither is the minority.
So by all means, speak your piece, march, rally, but do so in peaceable, law abiding way. And if you want to persuade me to your cause, please try to reason with me, reach out and show your interested in my good opinion; If you want to harden my opinion against you, then by all means shout slogans, disregard and disrespect me, and generally act out your feelings of moral superiority.
