Spring Break
The Daily OrangeStudent protests become disrespectful
By Al Ortiz
Posted: 3/28/08, 12:52 AM EST Section: Opinion
I also have had loved ones serve overseas and still feel it is not a free pass to act in such a manner. Had my family members been casualties of the war, I would not want to see a "street theater," as Henry so accurately put it, showing how they lost their lives.
The situation is complicated. The war is so complex that feelings and personal experiences come in varying intensities and with different viewpoints.
Despite this complication, there has to be a boundary between the expression of one's feelings and the disregard of others'.
"Certainly there are limits to freedom of speech," said Peter Bell, SU professor of law. "Such as, if you occupy someone's building or space, you have trespassed, and they can take you out and can obviously arrest you. There are a lot of little certain types of limits built in there. The way it works out is, yeah, you have the right to freedom of speech, but there are ways where (protesters) can shoot themselves in the foot by behaving in ways that discourage support for whatever it is they're trying to get accomplished."
Case in point - on Easter Sunday, six anti-war protesters entered a church in Chicago, disrupting a mass by yelling, chanting and squirting fake blood on themselves and other parishioners, according to a report by FOX News.
The protesters were charged with multiple felonies, including felony trespass. Some people may say this was too harsh of a penalty, like Karen Conti, a professor of law at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, as she stated on The O'Reilly Factor the following Monday night.
While I can partially see where Conti is coming from, I have no problem with categorizing this far-left insanity as a felony.
If such acts, like the one Conti addresses, were not considered felonies, the right to worship can be thrown almost out the window. People have, and should, continue to have such an important right, especially on such an important religious holiday as Easter.
And although the protest that took place here on campus is nowhere near as extreme as this, it still reminds us that respect should be evident in forms of protest. And this respect for individual rights is something that should extend from worshipers on Easter Sunday, to family members of the armed services and to those who have lost loved ones in wars.
Al Ortiz is a junior writing major. His columns appear every Friday. He can be reached at asortiz@syr.edu.
The situation is complicated. The war is so complex that feelings and personal experiences come in varying intensities and with different viewpoints.
Despite this complication, there has to be a boundary between the expression of one's feelings and the disregard of others'.
"Certainly there are limits to freedom of speech," said Peter Bell, SU professor of law. "Such as, if you occupy someone's building or space, you have trespassed, and they can take you out and can obviously arrest you. There are a lot of little certain types of limits built in there. The way it works out is, yeah, you have the right to freedom of speech, but there are ways where (protesters) can shoot themselves in the foot by behaving in ways that discourage support for whatever it is they're trying to get accomplished."
Case in point - on Easter Sunday, six anti-war protesters entered a church in Chicago, disrupting a mass by yelling, chanting and squirting fake blood on themselves and other parishioners, according to a report by FOX News.
The protesters were charged with multiple felonies, including felony trespass. Some people may say this was too harsh of a penalty, like Karen Conti, a professor of law at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, as she stated on The O'Reilly Factor the following Monday night.
While I can partially see where Conti is coming from, I have no problem with categorizing this far-left insanity as a felony.
If such acts, like the one Conti addresses, were not considered felonies, the right to worship can be thrown almost out the window. People have, and should, continue to have such an important right, especially on such an important religious holiday as Easter.
And although the protest that took place here on campus is nowhere near as extreme as this, it still reminds us that respect should be evident in forms of protest. And this respect for individual rights is something that should extend from worshipers on Easter Sunday, to family members of the armed services and to those who have lost loved ones in wars.
Al Ortiz is a junior writing major. His columns appear every Friday. He can be reached at asortiz@syr.edu.
Viewing Comments 1 - 2 of 2
Pat O'Malley
posted 3/28/08 @ 9:10 AM EST
It sounds like Al prefers his protests to be neat,clean and polite affairs. Al, sometimes protests need to get progressively more robust in order to provoke change. (Continued…)
James Howison
posted 3/30/08 @ 11:00 AM EST
Soldiers die and the government forbids even showing their returning coffins on television. They want the public to see this as a sanitized war, a smart bomb and drone war, rather than the street level chaos it is. (Continued…)
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