With my movie and album reviews, I will occasionally comment on certain human affairs still. This post is one example of such a time to choose to.<\/p>\n
This writing is in response to a dangerous trend I observe as a watchman, in which rule of law and due process are disregarded in favor of vigilante protests and dangerous confrontations. This breach of civility leads to violence that we have seen in many other countries and our past. And, violence against violence in self defense are justified by the law, so we best not start.<\/p>\n
We don’t want that here in the USA. When people are not versed in the legal structure and due processes (as evidenced by their behavior or words), they are inclined to engage in mob mentality and violence. So we need to call it out. I witnessed that this past week. Senator Flake, a member of the committee tasked according to laws of the US with hearing testimony (that lead to approval or denial for the court appointment to Supreme Court Justice), was accosted this past week by two women and press in an elevator as he was going to meeting. The Senator was accosted, his path was blocked – preventing him from attending the meeting on time. And, he was cornered by women as they bullied him and intimidated him into voting according to their wishes. She even taunted and insisted that he look at her while she was speaking, even though he was giving full attention to her. This is not democracy! This is vigilante behavior, that if he had used physical action to defend himself (such as push her aside or lay hand on her), a just court would recognize his rights to freedom of movement, freedom to ignore the woman – not speaking a single word in reply, push her aside. Moreover, he would be justified in macing the women in the face. But, the Senator acted more patiently than he was really required to do. This is because, generally, Senators act with great integrity.<\/p>\n
What many ordinary Americans forget, is that peaceful protest is a civil right in this country subject to rules. Protests require prior and proper consent; and, the protests must be carried out within specified territory\/boundary in the public space. These women who accosted the Senator this past week, disregarded that. They would be entirely within their rights to contact the Senator by email, mail, telephone, or to schedule a meeting in person with their representative, in order to speak their grievances. It’s not tolerable behavior – to corner a senator on his way to the hearing, in order to lecture him, solicit comment, entrap, or reprimand him for not agreeing with their grievance. Especially, if their intent is to muster up civil disobedience.<\/p>\n
It does appear that these women were propped up by opposition to appear in this way and to do as they did. Senators responsible for casting vote, must be free to cast their votes free from intimidation. These women by the elevator, violated him. And his colleagues did not call security as they should have. The two women threatened his personal space for political end. They lectured him for not deeming the justice’s testimony incriminating evidence, (as they did). They unfortunately delayed justice, and, through their behavior have degraded the civility that men and women should abide by professionally.<\/p>\n
Also disturbing, is that people find such confrontation an act of civil courage. More people need to speak out in defense of Congressional members’ work, who like jurors, need to know that they can cast their votes without being intimidated, bribed, threatened, or silenced, according to how they vote – except by the democratic punishment of not being re-elected to the office. After having watched this video of the encounter, it is clear that Senator Flake had every right to push the women and press aside, or even to pepper spray the two women. The Senator handled the situation with great patience; he also recognized his right that he would not be compelled to do anything or say anything in reply to the confrontation – which was very smart of him to do. Although, because of how aggressive (one of the women in particular) she was, it would have been understandable and justified, if the Senator were to push her away or spray mace at her.<\/p>\n
In sum, we cannot allow women or men to be be so confrontational that the mechanisms of just democracy erode… or are ignored to be put to use. It’s a sign of decay in civil harmony. We’re not talking about arguments between loved ones nor face to face confrontations in civility. Our democracy provides sufficient means for people to dissent peacefully, and, to participate in the political process.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
With my movie and album reviews, I will occasionally comment on certain human affairs still. This post is one example of such a time to choose to. This writing is in response to a dangerous trend I observe as a …<\/span> Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-us-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.film-shorts.tv\/wpress.cfonseca160\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.film-shorts.tv\/wpress.cfonseca160\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.film-shorts.tv\/wpress.cfonseca160\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.film-shorts.tv\/wpress.cfonseca160\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.film-shorts.tv\/wpress.cfonseca160\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2344"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.film-shorts.tv\/wpress.cfonseca160\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2344\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2348,"href":"https:\/\/www.film-shorts.tv\/wpress.cfonseca160\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2344\/revisions\/2348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.film-shorts.tv\/wpress.cfonseca160\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.film-shorts.tv\/wpress.cfonseca160\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.film-shorts.tv\/wpress.cfonseca160\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}