CRACKDOWN ON OCCUPY OAKLAND - AND THE STATE OF CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN POLITICS...........

The shape and direction of American political movements has decidely changed in recent years.  Given our First Amendment constitutional right to Freedom of Speech, advocacy and protest have always been a part of the American experience for our citzenry.  Yet, in the past three years the intensity of  that advocacy and protest has rachetted up significantly.  Beginning in early 2009, with the inception of the Tea Party, a very vocal and organized political movement on the right wing of the Republican Party, opposing the autumn 2008, TARP bailout, enacted at the end of the G.W. Bush Administration; and vociferously protesting the spending policies of the Obama Administration; they dominated the 2010 midterm elections, and are substantially shaping the 2012 Republican Presidential nomination race.  The Democratic Party also has its advocacy and protest movements emerging in a much more pronounced way than previous to this, from the left wing politically, the Occupy Wall Street protest movement, spreading from New York City, across the country, being the latest manifestation.  Both of these political movements are within their rights to protest and advocate.  But is my opinion as as an observer in analyzing their protests, that both the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street movements have reason to revisit and redirect the extent of their activities.  I argue this point of view for the reasons that is no place for prejudicial, or violent, actions and attitudes to be a part of the protests they mount.  Some of the early public gatherings of the Tea Party had overt signs of prejudice and racism in the posters carried at those rallies, and in the past month, some of the reactions by Tea
Party members to questions and comments made at the GOP Presidential debates, boo-ing an American soldier on active duty aboard, because he openly said he is gay, or applauding a candidate's stated denial of health care to a possible 30 year old American male without insurance coverage, was undignified and contrary to moral values.  Equally egregious, is the violence and hostility that have broken out in recent days in the Occupy Oakland mobilization.  Occupy Wall Street and its affiliated groups, like the Tea Party and its affiliated groups, have the freedom to assemble, organize, protest, but those protests guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution, must be civilized, dignified, and respectful, of the safety and liberty of all peoples.  One of the hallmarks of American citizenship is our right to speak and act, without guile for, or against,  the principles and political views we express.  Hostility, Violence, Prejudice, Racism, Discrimination, have no place being the covert agenda for the attitudes and actions we affect...........God Bless America With Freedom, Liberty, Justice, And Peace,   Fr.  Troy