Beautiful protest
1, 2, 3, 4, what are we fighting for?
THE PRESS release called for a two-day protest outside Senator Tom Cotton’s office in Little Rock, all to declare/demand/shout support for health care. As if anybody could be against health care. What we’re arguing about is how best provide it. Maybe without forcing folks to buy stuff they don’t want. And without bankrupting the country.
MoveOn.org was behind the protest, which figures. For those readers too young to remember, MoveOn.org was created to defend Bill Clinton against impeachment when he was caught being Bill Clinton in the White House. The idea was, he did it, he admitted it, so Move On. No need to hold him accountable. Whenever organizers with that outfit start their moral preening, some of us take it with a No. 4 wash tub of salt.
This week’s protest was to be held outside Tom Cotton’s office at the beautiful Victory Building on Capitol Avenue. So why not go to see the fireworks? If for nothing else, an inky wretch can get out of the office and tour an office building that looks more like the inside of a grand hotel.
It’s not as if Tom Cotton needs us to defend him, of course. He did pretty darned good the other evening when 1,000-plus people packed into a school in northwestern Arkansas to shout him down. He even gave the organizer of the meeting the stage for a bit, and extended the meeting when he saw it would run long. And the senator took the abuse like a public servant and gentleman, and not necessarily in that order. We always did like Tom Cotton. And not just because his last name rhymes with “old times there are not forgotten.”
We thought Thursday’s protest might be along the lines of what we’d seen before. Would traffic be backed up? How far away would we have to park? How would the police handle the crowd?
Thursday, in front of Tom Cotton’s office, the folks at MoveOn.org had assembled three people, holding signs and moving around trying to keep warm.
Our first thought: What a beautiful protest.
Of all the humans who have ever lived, very few have ever had the freedom to question the king. Or the queen. Or the shah or emperor or pharaoh or khan or general secretary of the party. That was a way to come out a head shorter. Even these modern days, most of the people in the world don’t have the freedom to question authorities.
You know what’s even more dangerous than joining a protest in most countries these days? Joining a small one.
Even the Iranian police couldn’t keep the people from taking to the streets in the hundreds of thousands back in 2009 during what was supposed to be a new Persian Awakening. But three people protesting in front of the Ayatollah’s palace? They might never be heard from again.
And here, on a Thursday, on Capitol Avenue, in downtown Little Rock, were three of We the People, standing in front of a senator’s office, protesting something about health care. Even if the senator they were protesting has been in the papers all week saying he didn’t like the new plans coming out of Washington either. The point might not be that the protesters knew all of the senator’s positions, or even whether they were all on the same page themselves, or even if the media decided not to cover such a small gathering. The fact that they were there made it beautiful.
What a country. Some of us think it has a future.