Thou Dost Protest Too Much... Or Dost Thou?
A good friend and colleague of mine was arrested on Thursday.
It's an interesting phenomenon working on Capitol Hill... you find yourself working amongst a fair mix of employees and 'believers;' the former being people who work there to make a living and the latter being people who are sacrificing a better living to work there. Personally I like to think of myself as a 'believer' but more and more my job is convincing me that I'm just an employee. It's a fine line for some of us, but Nate clearly falls into the 'believer' category. A 'believer' is someone (right, left or center) who thinks they can make a difference, someone who is willing to forgo a better job/salary elsewhere to advance an ideology. Your government would be in bad shape without 'believers,' because while Senators do alright, staff make dick. It's not reasonable to expect to take advantage of a person's politcal passion when hiring and expect them to contain that passion when they're not at work.
If Nate is guilty of anything, it's protesting outside of the designated protest area, but speech is speech. Protest areas are an insult to democracy -- I was ashamed of my party with the cage they allowed to be used for protesters at the convention in Boston. I would no more expect someone with something to say to limit themselves to a pre-ordained area than I would expect them to limit themselves to a pre-ordained message. It's just un-American. In fact, it's almost Republican.
Hopefully nothing will come of this. Hopefully in hindsight, this will seem like a silly notion that there would be some sort of employment consequence to this.
Watch this space to see what happens next, but I'm hoping that I'm a 'believer' in a party that embraces dissent and while maybe not actively endorsing a particular protest, can find room at the table for those who feel compelled to speak their minds. Surely the benefit of the doubt will be extended at least until after the hearing/trial with a city that is notorious for overreaction and may well drop the charges or be found to have acted inappropriately.
In the end, is there really much of a difference between one staffer holding up a sign at an event and another printing in a not-very-widely-read blog that "President Bush is an asshole" ... ? I really don't think so.
Replies: 3 comments
Anyone care to make a wager that the $25 fine is eventually thrown out?
Posted by @ 01/26/05 3:57 a.m. ET
That's one reason why I live by the credo that all protesters are stupid.
Posted by @ 01/26/05 4:22 a.m. ET
It doesn't get more plain than that. This guy makes himself look like the idiot anarchists that frequent our fair District when their panties get in a knot and mommy won't make it stop.
Posted by @ 01/26/05 1:23 a.m. ET