LeliaThomas.Com

Newsflash: Differing opinions are dangerous.

Living abroad, I’m subscribed to safety warnings through the U.S. consulate. I don’t know why, really, considering I don’t trust any government to tell me what’s actually going on, but, well, it was a place to put my email address, I suppose. Today was the first email I received through it, and I have to say, it’s just pretty disgusting to me. Thanks, Uncle Sam.

Anyone who knows me knows that I am not pro-war or anti-war. I don’t think peace is possible without blood, sweat and tears, nor do I believe every war is about peace in the long-run. Some are just. Some are not. It’s hard for those of us not in them directly to decide for sure, one way or the other.

However, no matter my stance on any war, people should have the right to hold up their flimsy cardboard signs and shout for a few hours about world peace and “war for oil”, if they please. Protests often feel like petitions to me: lots of noise, few hardcore results. But, well, if you want to protest, and you believe in the power of protesting, then, by all means, you should go do it. You should be allowed to do it. Keep it non-violent; I think most of the levelheaded in the world do.

But this “warning” from the consulate almost makes me want to go to the protest, just as a sort of nice “shove it” gesture to those who apparently think it’s now a safety issue when someone has an alternate opinion. I mean, God, what would people start thinking? That they were allowed to have free thought? Different thoughts?

Blasphemous!

Speaking of such…China blocks my website.

Comments ordered from oldest to newest.

Justin Ruckman

Woo! My site works in China. I musta done something good/bad.

E.T.Cook

Being that I have been in the middle of some of these government notices that get published, I can tell you that the reason for the notice is not the content but rather what the repercussions might be. In any passionate scenario, there is the possibility of violent conflict, and an air of tension and un-ease is created during these protests. I think the government would be wholly irresponsible if it were not to act in the way it did, and notify individuals that the environment’s creation is impending, don’t you?

Lelia

E.T., I disagree. It is the government’s job to tell citizens of threats, such as disease, terrorism issues, etc. I don’t see where it’s the government’s job to pretty obviously take sides when it comes to a protest rally (and this is being said from someone who actually doesn’t think the rally is worthwhile) and try to discourage its citizens from participating in the event for “safety issues.”

If a large crowd with a chance at violence is all it takes (remember, the notice itself mentions that previous protests have been non-violent!), where were these warnings during other protests in the same cities? Where were these warnings for the concert mosh pits? I mean, seriously. So if the government is wholly irresponsible if it doesn’t warn me of “such dangers,” I guess it’s screwed up several times since I moved here, as this is definitely not the first or last protest, nor is it the first or last one about the war in Iraq.

E.T.Cook

You are comparing apples to oranges. The “concert mosh pits” are private events on private property. Protests that have been scheduled prior, and have provided the government with notification is enough impetus for a notice in its regard in my opinion.

It isn’t the large crowd with a chance of violence…it is the large crowd, that is scheduled to gather, that the government knows about, that presumably is on public property and utilizes public resources to keep under control, and empirically has proven to have a high propensity for violence or at the very least a very tense atmosphere certainly is something the government should publish a notice about.

Although you think that the government is taking sides, you may be correct, but it certainly isn’t in the fashion that you describe or insinuate. They are taking the side of public safety. They don’t even go so far as to admonish the participants. You insinuate that they take sides based on content, but in truth, they take sides based on the possible outcome of the protest.

josh

Well the consulate really has nothing better to do with it’s time… Eitherway, I’d be happy-they provided me with all the information I need to attend! They just helped the protest by spreading word of where and when the protests take place. It makes it even easier to get word out because you just have to foreward it!
But I suppose they’re also making Australia a safer place ….for all the American hermits at home checking their email??! I couldn’t imagine many people other than elderly or youth getting hurt in this fiasco, and I doubt their efforts are reaching out to either of them. If they honestly cared about them they would have used snail mail or phones. Instead they go cheap. Cheap security.

E.T.Cook

Wow Josh, it seems you have either a fundamental misunderstanding, or inexperience with the American Ex-pat communities overseas.

Joshua

How so? If someone innocent gets hurt in a protest, is it because they did not realize that they were at a protest? If they had gotten an email before hand would they not have gone, thinking ‘oh my that sounds dangerous I think I’ll keep at home today’?

Only if they are elderly, or are protective parents who want their children kept as safe as possible. I might be missing something, but usually when protesters get hurt they know that they are at a protest. And they probably chose to be there. I don’t see anyone that can actually gain protection from these emails because the very audience it is geared towards (teens and anyone young enough to feel comfortable using computers) is the very same audience that is going to be out there wreaking the havok. I guess maybe I’m wrong and there are alot of people who will be saved by the email…

E.T.Cook

I am not referring to your “elderly” remark. You made pejorative remarks about the method of communication amongst the ex-pats and the consoloate. This simply is not true. The mailing list and publications by the consolate through those mailing lists are very popular and worthwhile to the ex-pat community.

Another thing to consider is that the protests, which typically heighten any anti-American sentiment into a ferver, might be an environment that the Americans would like to shy away from. This is exactly what the notice states emphatically…it dissuades Americans from entering in the regions where the demonstrations are taking place…by no means denouncing their existence. How can you look upon this notice negatively…I really still don’t understand.

Lelia

E.T., I was making a point about the absurdity of this when pointing out concert mosh pits. My point was that a protest is no more dangerous than those, and I don’t think safety warnings are limited to public property areas. You seemed to miss part of my reply, though: …where were these warnings during other protests in the same cities? ….So if the government is wholly irresponsible if it doesn’t warn me of “such dangers,” I guess it’s screwed up several times since I moved here, as this is definitely not the first or last protest, nor is it the first or last one about the war in Iraq.

It’s all so silly.

E.T.Cook

What other protests in the same city? Were they the catalyst for the same caliber of anti-American sentiment? Does the protest against the destruction of our rainforest somehow create an anti-American atmosphere that could prove to be at the very least contemptous to Americans in general? I still don’t understand your argument. You are equating the acknowledgement and statement of the impending existance of a possibly anti-American environment in certain areas with a public rebuke of the protests themselves…the only correlation between the two is one that is contrived.

The mosh pit isn’t specifically anti-American, not to mention this notice was a public service. I may, as an American, not have known about the protests, and thus will stay away from those areas. However it is the private venues duty, or your own, to do the due diligence necessary to ascertain whether you feel your health or lfie might be in danger upon attending a concert, as you used as your example.

Again, you still fail to point out where in the notice there is a direct rebuke of the protest itself, instead you attack the merit of posting a bulletin in the first place. This is specifically a notice to a certain group of individuals that there might be hostile environments in certain areas, and if they see fit, to stay away from those areas. Your assessment of the bulletin is hard for me to grasp…the words are quite clear, and thus the intent is as well.

Josh

E.t. - ex-pat community?? External Pattern? Extra Pate’? Exiled Patriots? I guess I really am out of the loop and I’m not going stick my nose into it.

Lelia - I do believe that protests are a couple steps beyond mosh pits. Tear gas, for one, rarely gets used in mosh pits. Neither do tasers, swat teams, and other new experimental methods of non-lethal crowd control. (not that I believe any of these should be used) I know that some mosh pits have gotten out of hand to the point where tear gas may be used, but I think that it would be considered a riot at that point - Sorry if I shot down your argument again, but I had to speak my voice!

shelly

I think the “China blocked my website” thing may have to do with you using Wordpress. A lot of Wordpress-powered sites and blogs are blocked by China for some reason. Hrm.

As for the “warning”, it doesn’t make sense to me. If there were other anti-war rallies going on down there, and there was no governmental warning issued then, why should the US consolate feel the need to issue one now? Absurd.

shelly

Josh ~ “Ex-pat” is short for “expatriate”.

brahnamin

i was recently told if i wanted to backpack through europe that i would be treated friendlier if i sewed a canadian flag on my pack.

my site is also banned / blocked in china.

;) i feel so proud

Jerry

I remember I was out the other day, at an apparel overstock when I saw this group of people rallying for peace (or against war) and they seemed very enthusiastic about it, so I felt compelled to join them, but I resisted, and I just stood there watching their enthusiasm until they all went home, and the war went on, even with their protest.