Page 37 - LIfesOuttakes2
P. 37
No Hypocrisy In Protest l It was the time of the Vietnam War, and there were many protests. Many questioned the practice of asserting our authority to help a people who not only didn’t seem to want our help, but despised us for it. We were trying to, in a sense, force democracy upon a people who either were not ready to live under democratic governments, or simply did not want them. Even if we consider our way of life to be the best in the world, is it our right to force it upon others? Democracy is ruling by the will of the people, and if the people do not have the will or desire to rule themselves, it will never work. Though many who lived during that time period didn’t agree with the war, there were some who took their protests to levels that were no better than the war itself. We watched riots, sit-ins, and many other acts of civil disobedience. Some seemed to be caught up in the fervor of the moment and protested anything and everything just to protest. In some ways, small communities, such as ours, were isolated from much of the action and counteraction that was going on in major metropolises of the nation. But one 32
