Tyranny of the minority is just as bad

Tyranny of the minority is just as bad

Editorial

Democracy: (di -mok-re-see) n., 1. Government by the people, exercised either directly or through elected representatives. 2. The principles of social equality and respect for the individual within a community. 3. Majority rule.

We offer the preceding definition, courtesy of The American Heritage Dictionary, not as any sort of a comprehensive explanation of how our, or any other government, operates on a daily basis. Rather, it’s meant as a jumping off point for a brief discussion of (1) what we believe was the fundamentally misguided efforts of a minority to disrupt and short-circuit both the marketplace of ideas – and the free exchange of opinions therein – and (2) how one group’s sophomoric attempts at self aggrandizing managed to single-handedly squander the American people’s first real opportunity to question – and there are questions! – their elected official’s policies toward Iraq.Admittedly, if you were to ask a dozen Americans what they believed was the right and proper expression of a healthy, functioning democracy, you’d very likely get twelve different answers. But, although combative and – dare we say! – even cynical by nature, there are some basic tenets which we like to believe transcend the individual and give form and substance to this thing we call democracy.One of these, we can collectively agree, is the freedom of speech. Perhaps the most important, most basic and least appreciated of our nation’s founding ideals, implicit in this freedom is the right – and the responsibility – to dissent. Indeed, our Constitution’s framers recognized dissent as vital to a democracy’s continued existence, taking extraordinary pains to make certain that the minority would never be crushed under the boot heel of the majority. However, to paraphrase JFK, to those whom much is given, much is expected.The right to express a dissenting opinion does not afford the dissenter any special privileges which are somehow denied others. It is the responsibility of a civilized people to respect another’s right to free expression – no matter how distasteful or ignorant their opinion may seem. To do otherwise, we can attest from first-hand knowledge, is to degenerate into anarchy, or worse, tyranny.And what we witnessed at Wednesday’s self-proclaimed “International Town Meeting” was just that, tyranny. But of a uniquely American sort.Rather than the few being overwhelmed by the many, a small but vocal group of dissenters chose to abuse their freedom by utilizing their collective voice to disrupt the forum for all. The result? Tyranny by the minority.That their methods of protest hurt whatever credibility truly concerned anti-war activists may have had is both obvious and a testament to their thoughtlessness. Any person who believes that political activism begins and ends with the chanting of four-letter words came to this conclusion from the privileged position of having been asked to give little and then providing even less.It was the irony of the afternoon that the vast majority of questions forwarded to the panel were both aggressive and pointed, more than giving adequate representation to a hostile point of view. That the protesters chose to indiscriminantly disrupt the speakers was at first inexplicable, and then ultimately embarrassing. Case in point: Jon Strange, the Columbus City Schools substitute teacher who eloquently took Secretary of State Albright to task over a U.S. foreign policy which often seems arbitrary and hypocritical. Good point.However, after being given a generous amount of time on the floor Jon returned to both his seat and the small-minded behavior which had brought him to everyone’s attention in the first place: Screaming obscenities and slogans copped from old Woody Guthrie albums. After doing his damndest to prevent both the panel and community members from voicing their opinions, he later told members of the media he thought the forum was a sham because protesters didn’t get an equal voice. What a joke.The real tragedy of the afternoon, however, was not that a small minority of the community embarrassed both themselves and the university, but that the world was in many ways denied a unique opportunity to question America’s leaders about one of the most pressing issues of the day.Talk about giving aid and comfort to the enemy.