Okay, here comes my very first public (assuming someone else reads it) rant.
There is a debate among many people in our city about protesters and the issues surrounding many of the violent protests of the last few years. Namely world domination by big multi-national corporations.
I'm going to get this out of the way before I go any further: Everyone should have the right to freely speak their mind in whatever legal forum they wish. As I am doing here.
An aquaintance came to me yesterday after having left work to join a protest that was passing the office. Organizers were dissapointed in the small number of people who actually showed up for the protest and this person remarked on the apathy of our citizens. Without thinking I said "well I'm sorry but I guess I'm one of those people". She said " Don't apologize to me, apologize to your children". I was quite taken aback and, as usually happens, I thought of a bunch of whitty and snide comments after the fact.
It got me thinking however. Where does someone get off telling me to apologize to my children for the fact that I actually stood up for my beliefs. I didn't go protest because I didn't agree with the protest, not because I was to afraid or didn't care. This person joined the protest when it was convenient for her and on work time. Was she going to take the morning off to go to the protest from the beginning? No. What does that say about her motive for protesting? Was she just doing it because everyone else was, and if so how does she explain that to her children (she doesn't have any of course so there's no reality check necessary)? This is also a person who sells a service to companies and would love to have some of these evil (my word not hers) mulit-national companies as clients.
I feel it just goes to further my belief that a lot of these protesters are hypocrites who are protesting because it's popular and they don't really have a grasp of the true issues. This isn't always true of course. I'm always impressed when someone can get up and speak knowledgeably about an issue and give some feasable alternatives to the help fix a problem.
I will unapologetically teach my child that she should stand up for what she believes using whatever means she feels necessary (always legal I hope). However she should always have a solid understanding of the issue and the problems all sides need to address.
There, I feel better now.