January 13, 2003
Curious Civic Behavior
So this evening I attended an event at Powell's about the book It's a Free Country: Personal Freedom in America After September 11, primarily because it seemed likely that the audience would be receptive to the work of the Portland Bill of Rights Defense Committee, for which I am an organizer.
Having managed to snag the second-to-last comment before the session wrapped up, to let those in attendance know that I was there to inform interested parties of the status of the local campaign to convince the Portland City Council to pass a resolution in support of civil rights and liberties, I figured things would go pretty well.
Now, this was your typical standing-room-only Powell's book event. There were people everywhere you looked. Yet in the end, maybe twenty of them bothered to come speak with me.
I don't mean to be bitter (it just comes naturally to me sometimes), but what in the world would prompt someone -- or rather, that many someones -- to come hear about and discuss the sorry state of civil liberties in post-9/11 America and then blow off the chance to get involved with a local effort to protest that sorry state of affairs?
That's not even "all talk and no action" -- it's "all listen and no action" instead. I suspect that many of those in attendance think quite highly of themselves for coming out on a rainy Monday evening to keep themselves informed. But that only carries so much weight. When do they stop listening and start doing?