I received comments to a post I made, which I feel deserve their own post. I hope in doing so, they are more visible and accessible to someone reading the blog. JTfromCT shared news about important recent protests and current events on the East Coast, and his participation and observations. See below:
JTfromCt said...
Although I never thought that the day would come that I might say or write this, we need more attorneys. Those civically minded in any case. Better still may be your suggestion to teach this at length while in school. This thought has occurred to me as well as I see so many, myself included, waver a bit on exactly where the lines are related to civil rights. Just when are people being taken advantage of by law enforcement, our own government(key word OUR)or others. The past few months alone we have had to sue our government for our right to protest in Washington. More than one person has been harassed, threatened or tazared even! by law enforcement for speaking out. It is our right to do so. One woman on a plane was required to fly with a blanket wrapped around her dress because an airline attendent requested this. The dress was not remotely inappropriate (although legally this should not matter either) the flight attendents request was a violation of the womans rights. The airline was Southwestern. We no longer have the right, as of this year, to watch news directly from other states and sometimes even other counties within a state. The local broadcast. The news must come from one of the major networks. A law passed prohibiting cable and satellite companies from offering this option and we were never informed! These are the smaller abuses but they chisel away at all of our rights and lead to the larger ones. This makes protecting our rights, if one can find and afford an attorney, that much more difficult. Why? Who's running this country? The people supposedly have elected a government to do the job and gaurd our rights?So yes, I very much agree that our rights and other legal issues including more in depth information regarding the workings of our governments, federal, state and local should be taught and made very clear as early as possible within our education system. Without being overly dramatic, many people have died over many years defending these rights and they are being challanged and stripped away without nearly enough protest. We have a responsibility to teach them to everyone. What a great post and great idea.Thank You!
October 6, 2007 7:50 PM
Mama said...
Hello JT, Thank you so much for your informative and encouraging comments. I didn't realize some of these things were going on, right now, in Washington (I assume you mean Washington state and not D.C.). As you say, small rights add up. In regard to the media and the new law passed in Washington, preventing cable and satellite viewers from seeing other state or county coverage...I found out about this in a roundabout way. I moved out to this orchard, and one has to have cable or satellite for television access (no reception otherwise). I was looking into getting Barney, a kids' show, for my son, and it was available through PBS but not locally, only in Spokane. They told me I could have local PBS from King county and Yakima, but not Spokane. I thought, how odd, that we are restricted by location, and wondered the same thing, about current events...How could someone trying to follow current events in Oregon or Spokane bypass this regulation? I was told I would have to apply for a special "exception" from the PBS group itself, in Spokane, if I wanted that program or station. Who knows how much that would cost, if it could even be done. I do think it's strange that the public were never notified, and secondly, that we have no choice but to be isolated from news of current events in other areas. There's news online, but not everyone has a computer in their household; the mainstream public still gets their news from television. Which means, an attorney, or public analyst, for example, who may wish to follow events occuring in another area, and examine the reach of the media on a topic and the public reaction, cannot do so. One could go online and get some news, but they would remain uninformed as to what the mainstream public, in another area, are absorbing through their local television. Being isolated from eachother is never good, and especially where civil rights violations are concerned. So in your small example, about a small right, it actually works in a variety of ways, to deprive the public or those who would serve the public, from access to information, not to mention depriving them of notice or right to protest in the first place.I absolutely agree with your views, and thank you for your input. It inspires me to again consider the possibility of going to law school myself, in the future.I also appreciate your emphasis on "OUR" government. I have, at times, like so many who do not see the point of voting, distanced myself and given up; or become angry at the system and felt "anti-American" as an American who has experienced the hypocrisy and civil rights violations firsthand. But I should remember that #1., I am not alone and should not act alone in this struggle--, and #2. WE really do have power to make changes, as it is OUR government. Isolation, apathy, and lack of information keep us from organizing.
October 6, 2007 11:26 PM
JTfromCt said...
Hi Mama,The protest was in Washington D.C.100,000 people from around the country marched from the White House to the Capital in protest of the war on September 15th. At the steps of the Capital people volunteered to lie down and be arrested, over 3000!, to symbolize those soldiers that have died in Iraq. A much smaller number were actually arrested. It was an incredible day. Very few knew this march had even occurred. Not a good sign. And, in part, due to the limited televised coverage of this event on a national scale and the inability of the public to view this through local broadcasts. If the protests, voices, are not heard in a peaceful demonstration -it was peaceful- what might we expect to happen next? Timeliness for such issues is very important but at some point I will post photos. Men, women and children marched holding signs, some very creative, some that carried a message that quickly hit home because they rang so true. Some humorous and directly to the point. A memorable moment - of which I greatly wish that I had the opportunity to collect more detailed information, it was not appropriate at the time - included a protestor of the war, a gentleman of middle eastern decent that had lost his son as a result of the war, and an anti anti- war protestor who appeared to be of military background. There were not too many pro war protestors that day. They argued loudly with their opposing views to the point one might expect a more physical confrontation to occur. Then, the pro war protestor stopped. He recognized this middle eastern gentleman's grief over the loss of his son and instead reached out to comfort him. He said that he understood his loss. The middle eastern gentleman broke down and the pro war protestor comforted him, became very supportive and literally hugged him. I have no idea if the pro war gentleman had suffered the loss of a family member or a comrade. I have no idea if this middle eastern gentleman's son was a citizen in Iraq, though it did not appear that his son was in the military.What was clear, abundantly so, was that war and death effects everyone equally on both sides at the level of the soldier and civilian. Particularly, those who have actually suffered a loss. The common people pay the true cost. Our politicians, who may occasionally visit the entirely secure areas of a war zone, are a world away from whatever comprises a front line today and in most case have absolutely no fear of bodily injury to themselves or their families. It becomes easier from such a perspective to justify and clearly prefer a preemptive strike (absurd in itself) rather than discourse as a first choice in resolving differences. These gentleman appeared to know the true cost of such a decision. They chose to find common ground in their grief or differences, back off from the shouting that resolved nothing and reach out instead. An incredible moment. Why the pro-war gentleman would argue against the anti war protestors to begin with I will never know. Perhaps he did indeed lose a son, daughter or friend during this confrontation and to believe that it may have been an unnecessary loss, the war may not be justifiable to begin with,would be too difficult to acknowledge. Perhaps he has yet to realize, as with many of us, that we may have been very mislead regarding the true level of threat to this Nation that Al Queda or any terrorist organization actually presents. Has anyone actually seen an Al Queda member in their backyard? (There was not one Al Queda member involved with the 9.11 attack. Al Queda did not yet exist.) As importantly, other than to secure or borders, there will be little more that we can do militarily to prevent terrorism should one or a group be willing to sacrifice their lives to take the lives of others. Perhaps the pro war protestor simply realized that this was a real person before him that does not induce the level of fear that government propaganda has suggested. Our politicians, specifically the members of this administration and those that support it, have prevented the public from viewing the death and destruction and kept the results of a 'military conflict' (coffins of our soldiers) well hidden. This has allowed, intentionally, the public to develop a laissez-faire attitude towards the war and made it easier to sell the notion of fear. Terrorism. We, the public, have caught on however and the greater percentage of American citizens no longer support this effort. It has taken far too long to come to this conclusion but we have been intentionally mislead. Just maybe, we realized and protested in time to prevent escalating the violence into Iran without the proper discourse, sanctions if necessary and world support if possible first. Although it may seem that I have drifted off on a tangent from our topic of civil rights, I have not. We have the right to demand that our government does not mislead us, we have the right to be properly informed, we have the right to be heard and acknowledged more timely than from one election to the next and we have the right for our informed opinions to weigh in more immediately on the decisions being made between elections. Regarding your comment ‘WE really do have power to make changes, as it is OUR government. Isolation, apathy, and lack of information keep us from organizing.’You are absolutely correct. I might add complacentcy as a key factor. Our lives have become so busy that we have allowed our government to continue on unchecked and we have assumed, taken for granted, that whoever may be in charge is actually acting responsibly, with our best interest in mind and in a fashion that represents the views of the mojority of our citizens. For the most part, this has not been the case. This is our fault. We looked away. We allowed this to occur.It will not be easy, but We can also correct it.It has been my experience that the far greater percentage of people (98%+) are not vastly different from one another. They have many of the same core beliefs and values. The differences within the states of our country, within the people of those states and the people from state to state is a perceived difference not an actual one. We may vary in opinion, that’s a good thing, but we are not nearly as divided as our Congress or that our Congress may suggest. Education, accurate information, defining and taking steps towards common goals with the ability to compromise along the way and a willingness to get involved will again make America a land of the people, allow us to refocus and point US in the proper direction. Your comments also recognized that the inability to view the news broadcast from other states only further separates us and may lead even to apprehension of one another. The ability to watch may reveal differences that, once identified, may lead to common ground. Or it may show that we are all far too much alike! It is clear that this was done for a reason and the reason can not possibly be good enough to counter balance the harm that may be caused. The pessimistic side of me believes this to have been done so as to reduce communication throughout the states. For example in Connecticut not too long ago we 'ousted' our Governor for illegal activity. We held him accountable. This is a much more difficult thing to do in some areas of the country. This may plant ideas that some may not want planted. At the same time the news from some places in the south that has become public nationally has resulted in a public response and, I believe, in the best interest of these areas. While it is true that the larger events MAY be acknowledged in the news at a national level, why wait for the larger events? Why not address the smaller issues before they become larger ones? It appears to me that some states have managed themselves into a position similar to the one that we see at a national level. This position being that the Government is running the people and not the other way around or the Government is acting on behalf of a small (although often very noisy) percentage of the population and not acting in the best interest of the whole. It appears to me also that our current administration has brought with it the thinking and ‘the way things run’ from one state and attempted, far too successfully, to impose this at a Federal level without this way of doing things being accepted at this level. It will be the internet and bloggers such as yourself that raise the questions, present the ideas and make the connections that may lead to linking us, is linking us, together throughout the U.S. like never before in our history. The internet and its effect on America is nothing short of the effect the Pony Express or the Continental Railroad had on National unity. It has the capacity to coalesce our thinking and bring us together.Oops! Guess I should start my own blog! Your comments have prompted so many thoughts it becomes difficult to stop writing!Will be watching for your next comments.Thanks again for your response.JT
October 8, 2007 8:05 AM
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment