The last few weeks has seen the resurgence of public protest over many issues. The tar sands Keystone XL pipeline where over 1200 people were arrested in Washington D.C. while exercising their first amendment rights to protest was a kickoff a few weeks back. Currently the Occupy Wall Street protest is a good deal more violent (perpetrated by the NYPD) than others that are going on. I have been to four protests (some called rallies) of a smaller scale here in Vancouver. None of these has received national media attention until there was violence. The media then tried to say that protest is by its nature violent and should we allow it. Allow it?
Wait, it is a right we have in this country to protest. It is a right we have to have access to our representatives. The summer recess by Congress had representatives going to their home districts and having various pay-to-access schemes going on to limit the representatives access. Many in the Tea Party did NOT want to face the electorate and many did NOT want to hear complaints of their performance during the debt "crisis".
This activist surge will continue. It has been building for thirty years and is about to become more and more visible despite the major media trying to minimize it. Hopefully it will not get more violent but the longer this goes the harder that will be to carry out.
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