April 04, 2003
Free Speech 101
A brief note of caution to certain elements of the antiwar movement present in Pioneer Courthouse Square late this afternoon, as a pro-war counter-demonstration got underway right at the edges of the usual weekly location for the PPRC rally.
Trying to interfere with, or shout down, the voices and messages of your opponents is nothing but asinine, and it spoils your own cause.
Yes, I understand that the pro-war message is essentially blaring from televisions, radios, and newspapers twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. So it seems, in some respects, rather silly for the pro-war people to stage a counter-demonstration right under your noses, thereby pulling much-desired media attention to themselves and away from you.
Suck it up.
Do you really want images of antiwar demonstrators trying to scream down or intimidate their opponents? Do you really want people to see you continually turning off their PA system?
No misunderstandings here. It was only a few of the antiwar demonstrators who were behaving in an infantile manner. Others were actually trying to create a buffer zone using their own bodies so that everyone could do their own thing.
But to those idiot few, it needs to be said: You only do damage to those very beliefs you claim to possess.
Free speech is not about who can shout the loudest, or who can drown out the other side. Your opponents are the ones who seethe with self-righteous anger when they are required to suffer the speaking of dissenting views.
That's not a page from their book that needs emulating.