Ineffective Protests

The problem with most protest groups is that they just can’t help making themselves look stupid. Many of them start out with serious and valid concerns, but their taste for mindless rhetoric always gets the better of them.

Over the last week I have seen the following protests:

• a housing human rights group that listed the 3 worst offenders on the planet. Sudan for ethnic cleansing, Russia for displacing 100,000 people in Chechnya, and the United States for having anti-homelessness laws. They have a valid concern about homelessness, and a valid concern about homelessness in the United States, but they make fools of themselves by comparing the United States to these other nations. I can just see the guy putting together the press release; “Let’s compare the United States to Sudan. That will really make our case!” Well, it does say something about their organization!
• a coalition of liberal church groups and labor unions pushing for self-determination in Iraq. So what do you think the United States is doing? They want out. But they don’t want to turn over the country to Saddam’s armed thugs. I guess in the minds of some, it is better if the United States leaves immediately and Iraq falls into chaos, rather than waiting a couple months for the first democratic elections in decades.
• George Bush is visiting Ottawa tomorrow, so the protest groups are out in force. They have “told” the police that they plan to be well behaved, but that police provocation will be met with force. I guess the police stand warned! One loony-tune group has called for Bush to be arrested as a war criminal if he sets foot on Canadian soil. Again, their message is lost because they just can’t help shooting their mouths off.

I guess this is a democracy. Anyone is free to cloud his free speech and make it as ineffective as he wishes!