Every so often, I cruise into Yellow Springs, Ohio, the home of Antioch College and radical politics and lifestyle. When I was a teenager livingnear this community, it was pretty normal to see protestors marching through the streets for whatever cause they were supporting. Antioch was one of the Freedom Riders training centers in the 50s and 60s, and a center of anti-Vietnam activities. The place fairly teemed with activism. There was more than one public hunger strike and several vigils that lasted months.
But these days, the only sign of protest is a tiny gaggle of aging peace mongers who gather on a street corner and hold up signs calling for an end to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The protests are regularly scheduled and last from about noon till 4 p.m. on Sundays, weather permitting.
It's sort of pathetic, really. I drive by and, while I support their cause wholly, I shake my head à ‚¬" sometimes with a little laugh, more often with a sigh of depression à ‚¬" and drive on. I've considered stopping and joining them, but, honestly, they are so ineffectual that it would be silly. A protest run on a schedule so that it doesn't interfere with Sunday sports broadcasts, to me, is rather counter to my sensibilities.
In a democracy, it is not the voices heard that matter. After all, everyone has a voice of some sort and everyone has the alleged right to raise that voice in protest. If a government responded with action every time a cry was raised, not only would it not be able to keep up with the sheer number of demands, but it would be continually contradicting itself, as with the above-stated Volsteadt Act, which was, as we know, repealed in 1933 after it became abundantly clear that legislating morals simply did not work (hint to moralist legislators and their friends)
We often refer to ourselves as a Democracy, even though we are not. We are, as many point out when it serves their purpose (no exception here) a Representative Republic. The difference is that, in a democracy, everyone has the right to decide on what happens. In ancient Athens, in fact, it was law that every free man had to vote, with severe penalties for those who didn't. In a government such as ours, we elect those who supposedly represent our views to speak for us, thereby relieving us of the drudgery of taking responsibility for running the country.
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