Civil Unrest is the American Way

I am sickened by the attempts of Congressional Democrats and the White House to assign motivations to protesters at Town Hall meetings as somehow “outside the mainstream” and to identify American citizens who differ with their Health Care initiatives as part of the “lunatic fringe.”

Some of you are old enough to remember the vernacular employed to discount the importance of protesters from the Civil Rights movement and the anti-Vietnam War movement.  If so, the words of Pelosi, Reid, and Obama should resonate as they attempt to downplay the irate nature of The People’s dissatisfaction with their Health Care reform plans.

Attempting to portray the discontent of the American People (regardless of political affiliation) with the Health Care debacle as “outrageous” or “lunacy” or “right wing motivated” is beyond the pale.

Act UP!  Act NOW!

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

 

First Amendment to the United States Constitution

“…it does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people’s minds…” — Samuel Adams

“Thus if the First Amendment means anything in this field, it must allow protests even against the moral code that the standard of the day sets for the community.” — William O. Douglas

“We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason if we remember that we are not descended from fearful men, not from men who feared to write, to speak, to associate and to defend causes which were, for the moment, unpopular.” — Edward R. Murrow

“Agitators are a set of interfering, meddling people, who come down to some perfectly contented class of the community and sow the seeds of discontent amongst them. That is the reason why agitators are so absolutely necessary. Without them, in our incomplete state, there would be no advance towards civilization.” — Oscar Wilde