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Pastimes : No to WTO! Seattle 1999 -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Eric Mason who wrote (90)	12/2/1999 12:14:00 AM
From: The Philosopher	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 187

When people use there bodies to block an entrance to an event, they are infringing on the rights of others and abusing there right of freedom of speech. That sounds good in theory. But then, of course, you are condemning all those who used their bodies to peacefully, nonviolently, but unlawfully sit-in segregated lunch counters in the South, blocking "legitimate" customers from using them; who blocked the entrances to segregated theaters and prevented patrons from going to the movies; who blocked the entrances to the Pentagon to protest the Vietnam War. And I wish thousands of German citizens had blocked the entrances to the concentration camps in and prevented the Nazis from shipping jews into them without confrontation or interference. Sometimes direct action is necessary to confront injustice. (Assuming that you believe the WTO is an instrument of injustice, which I don't necessarily agree with but that's not relevant as long as legitimate protestors legitimately believe so). IMO violence and destruction are never appropriate. But blocking the entrances to a meeting room to interfere with the process of creating injustice (if you see it that way) has a certain legitimacy. And sometimes those protests will infringe on others. That is part of the messiness of a free democratic society. Balancing those rights is one of the most challenging but essential tasks of our society. But just saying that such demonstrations or protests should never under any circumstances be permitted is not the way to guarantee freedoms for ourselves and our children.