Did you hear about the peaceful protests in Egypt that started last month? How the people of Egypt ousted Hosini Mubarak simply by taking to the streets and demanding, peacefully, that their voices, voices crying out for democracy, be heard? So did Wisconsin.
When you sign any political petition online, they usually ask for your email and get you on their mailing list to send you more information about the cause for which you're showing your support. It makes sense. I have signed political petitions online, and my email inbox is flooded with political crap every day. I skim them, sign the petitions for issues I already cared about anyway, and then delete. Sometimes, I'll go so far as to post links to petitions and news articles to my Facebook in support of causes. But, for the most part, I am not a huge political activist. My political beliefs don't quite fall into liberalism or conservatism "perfectly" and so I often find myself not completely "on board" with the majority of the political activism about which I get emails.
When I started getting emails about Wisconsin though, I was sincerely annoyed. I already thought the whole situation was ridiculous, and now my inbox was getting filled with ridiculous calls to support the ridiculousness. If you don't know what's going on in Wisconsin, here are the basic "facts": the Republicans are trying to pass a bill that is anti-union, and the Democrats don't like this. So they (the Democratic lawmakers) fled the state. Literally. Their absence prevents the Republicans from having the necessary-under-law quorum to pass any bill involving money, which is pretty much all bills. The citizens of Wisconsin too have made their disapproval of the bill heard by staging peaceful protests at the state capital, comparing Madison, Wisconsin to Cario, Egypt.
I'm all about power to the people, but seriously? Fleeing the state? Thousands of people leaving their jobs just to go protest an anti-union bill? And the nerve of comparing themselves to Egypt! Egyptians have shown incredible courage in their fight for their freedom; Wisconsinites just seemed to be jumping on the "let's find something to protest" bandwagon. Their lives were in no danger. No one shot rubber bullets at them or threw tear gas; they were safe, not brave.
And then something happened. As I was listening to myself grumble about how stupid the Wisconsin protests were, I suddenly realised what I love most about my country but so often forget to appreciate: that we can protest without fearing for our lives, that we are free to unite and stage protests for what we believe in, and that we are also free to think the protests of our fellow Americans are stupid.
I know very little about the bill being protested, actually. I haven't formed an opinion on the bill either way because I just don't know the details. I don't even have an opinion on unions, really. They're good for some people and bad for others, but I don't know what the net benefit or net harm of unions are or what would happen in the long run were this bill to pass or were it to fail. And if it weren't for the Wisconsin protesters, I wouldn't be aware of my own ignorance.
So I signed a petition in show of my support for the Wisconsin protesters. Not because I had done my research and discovered that the protestors were right and the bill would cause more harm than good, not because I supported their cause, but because I supported their willingness to stand up for their belief that this bill would cause more harm than good. I decided to show my support for the right of all people to protest, even when I do not agree. Let the voices of all people be heard; let no one be silenced. This is democracy.
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