Friday, February 23, 2007
Protest Culture
The film we watched in class on Thursday inspired me to think about how I view public participation, and what it means to be American. The first amendment offers special protections and freedoms unique to our nation. We can speak our minds and feel free to assemble. However as I watched the tape I grew frustrated. Outside the realm of sheer numbers and perhaps limited creativity I see no correlation between protesting and political change (at least today). The Civil Rights movement was a success because people marched, gave inspirational speeches and lobbied through the proper channels to spark legislative progress. However today, there seems to be more anger, chaos and disunity in the protest process. When protestors harrass legislators they are hindering the political process and unfairly personally attacking our public servants. As a conservative there are leftist politicians which drive me crazy, however I would NEVER personally harass them or protest in front of a national political convention. In fact, I'm sick and tired of watching videos of hippies protesting Republicans. SICK AND TIRED! I have an open mind, however I feel if our school wants to stop being hypocritical and begin truly living the vision statement more people would show the conservative perspective in the classroom. In one of my classes we spent six class sessions watching videos which demonized Ronald Reagan, capitalism, the military, and Christian families. (In a US History class!) I'm too frustrated to write. Cindy Sheehan is coming to CSUMB and she is a fantastic example of having the right to free speech. Her anti war activism inspires passionate feelings about the controversial issue of the War on Terror. She is granted the right to speak her mind because she lives in America. Just because I don't agree with her doesn't mean I don't celebrate her freedom of speech. There is so much to think about...
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2 comments:
Today we face many issues regarding our freedom of speech and so on, the Supreme Court allows for the control of this expression by placing limitations onto time, place and manner. As we discussed in class, if we move the protesters to a protest bin away from the convention, or what have you, we silence them. Isn't that undermining the whole act of free speech in the end? I admire your courage in standing up for yourself,and you have an audience here; however, if no one hears you, why stand up at all? When we place limits on peaceful protest,it is un-American. Protesting is as American as apple pie, when we place restrictions, we run into a catch-22, we all understand that some limitations need to be taken, however, where we draw the line is where we find confrontation.
I am not a liberal either, however, we do not share the same view on this topic which is fine by me. I applaud you for your honesty and appreciate your point of view.
I am glad you put passion into your blog, it is inspiring! I agree there seems to be some hypocrisy in the existing system and that is frustrating. It seems that protesting, like we saw today for the Berkeley FSM, seems to be outdated. There are so many other methods, which reach a broader audience, in this day and age.
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