my-idea-is-worth-your-pain

What if I believe something fervently, if I believe something so strongly that I'm willing to inconvenience myself for my chosen cause. That's ok, right? What if I think that you should agree with me and that you're not really paying attention to my cause, but if I could just get your attention, I'd convince you to share my beliefs. That might be ok too, because you can ignore me? But what if I decide that to get your attention, to make sure you're listening, I have to get in your way, interrupt your progress, disrupt your daily pattern. That would get your attention, right? It would also probably piss you off and it wouldn't necessarily bring you over to my side which some members of every cause seem to overlook.

Now if I'm a war protestor (I am, but not in the sense of marching in the streets, yet), I should probably think about what kind of response I want to get from my audience (captive or otherwise). Do I want them to come around to my way of thinking or am I just in it to skip classes and ride on the bandwagon with all the other crazy cool people? Am I just in it to do outragous things, inappropriate things, in the name of a good cause.

A couple of my friends have talked about the subject of war protesters who seem to think that anything they do under the guise of supporting peace is a good thing. Ucblockhead talked about the protesters in San Francisco who locked up portions of that city. He's got pictures, the most damning being of a peace sign painted on a statue... vandalism for peace, apparently.

Lago wrote an essay on civil disobedience and the irony of protesting *for* peace while disturbing the peace of others.

Here in my fair town of Olympia, we've had protests and rallies of support a plenty. On Friday we had an excellent example of poorly targeted civil disobedience -- blocking a major road and attempting to hold all the morning commuters hostage. I read a letter to the editor in my local paper, The Olympian, that does a pretty good job of my viewpoint.

Protesters went too far in expressing views

I write in response to The Olympian's article "Four arrested in war protest."

The gentlemen that disabled their cars on the Fourth Avenue bridge certainly sent us a valuable lesson.

There is a fine example of a good cause and a good fight -- blunted, misdirected and nullified by zeal.

We all cherish our right to free speech, but we will lose that right when we extrapolate it into a right to -- in affect -- pin down an unwilling audience and force ideas in their face.

Blocking a bridge is more than a late-to-work issue when the lights go on at the firehouse. Some standard of behavior is obviously appropriate for all members of a society -- believers and disbelievers -- regardless of our beliefs.

When one feels that his or her ideas are more important than anyone else's rights, one is arrogant to the point of being amoral and antisocial.

I realize the demonstrators feel that their version of the world needs to be aired. I welcome them to do so -- thoughtfully, rationally and intelligently. I think their use of metaphor was clever and admirable.

However, the use of forced infliction of danger and discomfort was not.

The notion of my-idea-is-worth-your-pain has been extrapolated by an arrogant few into a justification for terrorism.

When all is said and done, zeal brings out both the best and the worst in us, doesn't it?

Bill Tourtillott, Olympia

Posted by buggy at March 23, 2003 01:09 PM