[Vision2020] The Duty of Dissent

[Tom Hansen]

>From today's (August 31, 2006) Spokesman Review -

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The duty of dissent 
Our View: Questioning government is an act of patriotism

August 31, 2006

Over the proud history of the United States of America, the use of the
nation's military has produced a long string of public debates going back to
the Revolutionary War itself.

What we recognize today as a courageous battle for liberty and
self-government, many colonists called treason.

When George Washington sent troops to quell the Whiskey Rebellion, some
Pennsylvania farmers called it tyranny.

The American experience is full of episodes in which full-throated reliance
on the freedom of expression assured that grave political decisions would
receive thorough public scrutiny.

 
The protesters weren't always right (the Tories who stood by King George,
for example), but time after time the nation was forced eventually to
reconsider hastily decided courses of action.

In the 1960s and '70s, many Americans thought the war in Vietnam was such a
mistake. Today, many loyal Americans think the war in Iraq is.

Speaking out about it isn't just their right; it's their duty. It's not an
act of disloyalty, it's an act of reverence for American ideals. Parents
scolding children for making bad choices are showing the same kind of tough
love.

Government leaders being called to task tend to react defensively, and the
current administration is no exception. The favored strategy in such
circumstances is to brand critics as unpatriotic.

Hence, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, speaking on Tuesday to the
American Legion convention in Salt Lake City, likened opponents of the Bush
administration's foreign policy to those who tried to head off World War II
by appeasing the Nazis and negotiating with Adolf Hitler. 

Labeling loyal Americans as Nazi-appeasers is a bald attempt to silence
protesters and chill their convictions without having to answer their
challenges.

Honest, spirited discourse about national policies is an indispensable check
on political recklessness. This country has attained the status it enjoys
today because the public voice, even when it isn't heeded, can at least be
heard.

Demanding blind acquiescence of Americans in policies they consider wrong is
an abandonment of American principles. How unpatriotic can you get?

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Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

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"Dissent is the highest form of patriotism"

- Thomas Jefferson

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