You're not an ordinary person anymore. There are millions of people who care about you and who would do what they could to help and protect you if you were jailed or facing execution.
You are not someone who has to go to work every day at ordinary employment, fearful that the train or bus around you is going to explode or that you could be shot, or that your spouse or child could die from terrorist violence. Your role in the world has changed as a result of your heroism; most people have to continue to be unsung heroes who are courageous enough to be ordinary in a world full of fear. I'm not even one of those people anymore; as imperiled as my life is, there are people who would object to my being murdered and there would be consequences for it additional to the consequences for the murder of a regular person.
Most people don't have the time to protest, either. The right to protest is essential to democracy, which is one of the reasons that it shouldn't be manipulated.
I think that the Keystone protests are valid. I'm not sure about many of the others that the media has provoked in the United States. People are in a frenzy, but I know how vicious and distorted the media is every day about so many things.
It is an abuse of influence to enjoy having the ability to antagonize a president or other world leader.
Copyright L. Kochman, January 28, 2017 @ 10:25 p.m.
