Protests show need for unity, dialogue in second Bush term

Breeze Perspectives

"And I’m a terrorist and you’re a terrorist and he’s a terrorist and she’s a terrorist — it’s terror! AHHH! But what is a terrorist?" This is one of the many cheers that could be heard on the streets of Washington, D.C., on Jan. 20, only a block away from Pennsylvania Avenue and the route of the Inauguration Parade. I was part of the protests against not only President Bush’s re-inauguration, but against what our country is and is still becoming. What I saw on the streets of Washington that day will never depart me: people being tear gassed, beaten and arrested — one protestor I saw was hit with a club by an officer and fell back, hitting his head on a car, knocking him out as the police just stood there — all for expressing their opinions and throwing a few snowballs. And while these events left me shocked and a bit scared, it wasn’t the worst that I encountered.

Seeing the division of the American people shocked me more than any of the brutality I witnessed. These are the times when we should be most unified. Even President Bush says that we need to come together as a country. But we have been separating ourselves more and more politically. The streets of Washington, D.C., were torn that day — in the metro stations, people started cheers of "Four more years!" as protestors walked by and one man kindly shouted in my direction: "Get a job!" It was a war of fur coats and suit jackets against the youth of America. How can I respect someone who is screaming these brutal words at me? No one is innocent of these crimes; shouldn’t we be listening to one another instead of bashing the beliefs of others with which we do not agree?

While the inauguration protest was not the best time to sit down with one of these fur-coated fellows for coffee, I have seen the same expression too often in my few years. I feel that if we could do more than just hear one another — maybe actually listen to these strange beings who don’t see what’s wrong with our country, much less the situation in Iraq, or Sudan or in South East Asia. Maybe if we heard why they don’t feel the same way we do, then we could understand their perspective, and, perhaps, they just might be willing to listen to our stories, too. We need some changes in this country — we are the only country who mass produces meat while also injecting hormones. We consume somewhere around 40 to 50 percent of the food produced in the entire world. We interject our politics and our ways of life onto others just like the European colonists did to Africa. Is our way of living justified? There are many people in struggling countries who hate us right now. Maybe we should start by paying attention to what the person next to us is saying. You don’t have to agree, but you do need to listen.

Beth Schermerhorn is a sophomore graphic science major.