Rage, Rage against the Denying of Your Rights

Posted on August 22, 2004 in Campaign 2004 Courage & Activism Medical Ethics

I heard about this just as we were pulling in to a pet food store this afternoon. In the wake of last Friday’s incident, I have found my strongest reason yet for moving away from my third party protest against Kerry’s militarism: the extreme right has once again gone way over the top and needs to be curbed:

Glenn Hiller told The Washington Post that he was let go from his graphic-design job after his boss told him that his actions at the rally had “reflected badly on the company.”

Hiller had been given his ticket to the event at Hedgesville High School by his employer – who had received the ducat from a client.

Among the things that Hiller did that “reflected badly” on everybody involved: He shouted the question “Would you sacrifice your daughters to liberate Iraq?” at the president during a lull in Bush’s speech.

(You should also check out The Washington Times juxtaposition of an anti-Daschle graphic right in the middle of their article. You know this is embarassing as all hell when the Moonies resort to that kind of tactic! Be warned: it is pop-up city!)

The Post article adds more:

Hiller, 35, said he waited for lulls in the president’s speech to shout questions and comments challenging what he called “half-truths” in Bush’s statements. He said he asked Bush about the benefits of outsourcing jobs, justifications for the war in Iraq and inspectors’ inability to find weapons of mass destruction there. He said that at one point, he shouted, “Would you sacrifice your daughters to liberate Iraq?”

Hiller said he then was escorted from the event at Hedgesville High School in Berkeley County, W.Va., and was threatened with arrest by campaign workers.

What happened here? A client handed Hiller’s employer a free ticket to the event. Excuse me? Bush rally tickets are being handed out as “favors”? Was Hiller required to go by his employer? It doesn’t appear to be the case (I would truly fire off a cannon if that were true), but we still have a serious ethical issue.

What is any business doing “gifting” tickets to these closed campaign rallies? Suppose one of their business partners refused the gift — let’s say that it was for the best of reasons namely that the company remains politically neutral. Or that it does not accept gifts from customers or clients. What then? Do they punish the company as politically suspect? Do they begin investigating its connections? Do they stick their noses where it doesn’t belong?

I would not feel comfortable with a business partner or an employer giving me a ticket to any campaign rally. I can only imagine that others feel the same.

All around it is ugly. The company loses a trained employee and possibly a business partner. Glenn Hiller — who was exercising his free speech right of dissent — loses his job. The Right is reaching well beyond reasonably defined debate into personal lives and that, my friends, is terrorism.

The right (wRong) screamed when Howard Dean told the man in Iowa to sit down so he could answer the question. This is much much much worse.

This is just not right. Legal, but boorish, vulgar, and entirely unethical on the part of both Hiller’s former employer and the client who passed on the “gift”.

Readers of this blog know what happened to me: I was refused medical service on Friday for telling a cardiologist not to politicize the relationship. When he gave me the “its a free country” line, I exercised my own free speech right, the right of telling him what I thought of the lies of the Swift Boat dirty tricksters and his draft-dodging usurper in the White House.

America is losing what it means to be America under this administration. Other bloggers have noticed a decided nastiness going about. Maria reports a racist remark made to her son. Loren Webster, perhaps flippantly, said in a comment on his own blog that American stress levels were intensified by the actions of this administration and its minions.

Personally, I don’t blame it on Bush. I blame it and I blame Bush on a morally irresponsibly mindset that has afflicted monied interests. They have become champions of Marxist theory. The idea of owning wage slaves appeals to them. Removing Bush is only one part of the program. We need a combination of laws and ethical controls — people standing up to these boors and saying “This is not right”. The ballot box is only one place where you must make your stand. You must start looking these Tories (this used to be a bad word — it meant a lover of King George III) in the eye and say “Not in my country you don’t.” There is no right to be rude. Not if you think that it means that no one can say anything about it.

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A note to my loyal readers: I am very sorry about neglecting the Roundup this week. I have been in shock all weekend. I will attempt to get it done on Monday.