Silver City is still buzzing about the July 4th parade entry from the Grant County Peace Coalition. The Peace Coalition marched a dozen "Guantanamo Bay Detainees" around the parade route.
Most of the buzz is from people who think it was totally inappropriate to bring up Gitmo on July 4th. The general consensus seems to be that this should have been a patriotic parade, and the Peace Coalition was being unpatriotic by dramatically visualizing the prisoner abuse scandals.
However, I say, what better day than July 4th to call our country to live up to the ideals on which it was founded? If we can't question the Bush administration's abuse of power on the anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, then when is such questioning appropriate? Or is July 4th now just a day to salute the flag, and kiss the ring of the president?
If the freedoms written into the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution are no longer worth celebrating, then July 4th is a hollow holiday, and we might as well return our country to the English crown.
The king is dead. Long live the republic!
Update: Thanks to Stina Sieg for the photo.
WARD
The method you choose for enacting change depends on [a] the stakes and [b] the time constraints. If you don't think we're heading toward fascism, or that we've got plenty of time to stop it, then not offending anyone might be a good strategy. But if you think we're in the midst of a national crisis that threatens the well-being of the entire world, then the raw, unvarnished truth needs to be presented at the gut-level to try to shake people out of their state of denial.
18,000 people saw our message, and every one of them had to come face-to-face, right in that moment, with where they stand on our government's policies. They might not have liked it, but at least they had to suffer a brief moment of thought.