Sunday, October 26, 2008
In My Defense
I’m not used to people actually reading these things that I write; it was interesting to get comments from people who’ve probably stumbled across my little plot of land. I usually write thinking that my audience will only be people that I have connections with. I know that I exist on the interweb as a node that connects to different networks, like family, friends that I have, classmates, and all that. I haven’t been writing with the idea of people being introduced to it for the first time. Some of the comments were critical of what I did. What I want to do is explain myself, why I did what I did and said what I said. I don’t have very much sympathy for hecklers at performances. I saw George Carlin perform about a month before he died. Carlin was a very intellectual person, and he prided himself on trying to be logically consistent. I saw him perform at the plaza theatre in El Paso. He got to a point in his routine where he was talking about how much importance we place on symbols, and said that cemeteries around the world are filled with dead brain washed soldiers. A gentleman who was also attending took offense at that. He might have been drunk, which is just an extra detail, and he started out yelling from the balcony. He would shout things like “shut the fuck up!” and “fuck you!” and he continued on with that with several different variations on that theme. I thought that man was out of line. You pay money to go see an entertainer, a performer, you should know what to expect, and you shouldn’t have to deal with people who don’t like it. I see a difference between things like heckling performers when people are out to have a good time, and heckling politicians whose actions have real world impacts. You shouldn't try to shut entertainers up, because that's all they are. Entertainers. Fluff. What they say doesn't really matter, only as much as it influences the people who hear it. But with politicians, the issues that they talk about, they actually matter, they have consequences. These are the people that will be making life or death decisions. When he goes out and gives a speech talking about how we will only let our troops return with victory, he is the man who will be pushing those troops into continuing that war, and it would lead to people being killed who otherwise wouldn’t have been. When they speak, it’s not just entertainment. Interrupting them, correcting them, offering counterpoints in that public environment of a rally, I think it should be considered fair game. There are actual implications and consequences when a candidate campaigns, it’s not entertainment, where you could take it or leave it as you like. This isn’t just a matter of disagreeing about politics, many, many lives are hanging in the balance in a very real way. What they say matters in a way that is horrifyingly real.
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3 comments:
Dear Rev. (reverse?),
I'm all for heckling and "givin 'em hell". There can’t be enough of it. These are the idiots that put us through the pain of "George W." the last eight years. They left us holding the bag on two ill waged wars and a ship wrecked economy. Why cut them any slack?
Do you really think you were presenting a counter argument by shouting out? Those people are the fringe, throwbacks from the scant few republicans who remain party loyal. They are Klansmen, Christian Fanatics, the American Taliban, they suffer from brain damage, they are people who can't read or write past the third grade. They live in the backwoods and rural parts of America, their water supplies have been laced with lead since before their births, they cling to their bibles and their weapons, waiting for Jesus to come back in the clouds. They call Obama, Muslim, Terrorist and shout "kill him" and "off with his head"... and mean it.
I find it a bit disingenuous that your were respectfully and thoughtfully expressing your opinion. There's a place and time of it but it isn’t a support rally. When your do it at a support rally it's called heckling and it's done to be offensive and piss people off. I okay with that… I'm not sure if you testing to see how big your balls are or if you were being seriously naive... I think the earlier…
It took courage and incredible conviction to do what you did, praises and support to you, yes indeed. However, if your going to heckle and play with the kitty when you walk into the lions den, you better be ready for a little broken skin and some serious fur to fly and don't pretend you were just edifying the speakers.
I shouldn’t really claim to say I was providing arguments in that forum, but I was bringing up counterpoints. I think what I wanted to do was show up and make it known that there were people, or a person, who stood up and made it known that they, or he, didn’t want to be on the wrong side of history. The analogy might be a little extreme, but what I intended was to show that there were in fact some good Germans around this time. I don’t care if I riled up the people that attended to show their support for the speakers, I hope that I did, that was a large part of what I wanted to do. Maybe if I could get through to someone, anyone, for just a second, that’s what I wanted to do. I think disrupting events like that, doing things far beyond even what I did that day, would be entirely legitimate. When people like John McCain and Steve Pearce hold these rallies, it’s just a side gig. It’s a horse and pony show that they endure so that they can get to do what they really want to do. Pundits, commentators, people like Bill O’Reilly, Ann Coulter, Bill Mahr (not that I’d want to equate Bill Mahr with those scumbags), if they hold some type of event like that, I don’t thin it’s as legitimate to be disruptive there. I make a very clear distinction, with commentators, their influence ends at the ears of the people attending. With politicians, it’s an audition, a pitch for them to either get to be in a position where they make choices that have real life consequences, or to keep a position that they already have. When a pundit tells a crowd that we ought to bomb Iran, the message ends right there, it doesn’t get any farther than the speakers will carry it. When a presidential candidate says something like that, it’s a threat, or maybe a promise. When McCain says things like we must only let our troops return from Iraq with victory and honor, in my mind I’m seeing flag draped coffins stream past. I’m not against them for what they are saying, I am against them for the actions that they take. Singing bomb, bomb, bomb Iran is a lot different if you’re the commander in chief than it is if you’re a radio host.
I don't count the pundits off limits. If they choose an entertainment style that also advocates a political position, then they too should be ready for the cheap shots and hecklers. When I pay for an event I am far less tolerant toward the heckler or someone disrupting the event. At paid events there may be terms and conditions that go with admission that call for my eviction if I chose to be disruptive. There are sometimes terms even on a ticketed public event. If heckling is disruptive you should count on the possibility of physical abuse, injury or arrest. Although assault is against the law you will find the nobody really cares for your rights in an antagonistic setting and no one will come to your rescue. You should know your rights and be prepared for to make phone calls from jail , you need to plan for an attorney, fines and bail money when engaging politically in this manner.
Happy Protesting...
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