Quote:
Originally posted by xoxoxoBruce
Whoopee do. In 1960 I took a nixon sign (I know, I know) to a Kennedy rally. Black eye, bloody nose, torn clothing and a very pissed off mother. What's new?
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The point is that in 1960, you were allowed to stand your ground and be visible. I'll wager that Kennedy's security team didn't drag you off and stomp you without provocation.
Doing what you did is sort of like wearing Cowboys silver-and-blue to an Eagles home game; it's understood that you're opening yourself up to a certain degree of disagreement and harassment. (In Philly, it may also be opening yourself up to extensive dental reconstruction.) But you're still allowed to do so, if you can take the heat; there's no fine print on the ticket saying "Cowboys fans must watch the game from the 200-level men's room on closed-circuit TV." You can sit in your seat and yell HOW 'BOUT DEM COWBOYS just as loudly as those around you are chanting E-A-G-L-E-S.
If you're being intentionally disruptive, they have the right to ask you to leave. But if you're being calm and presenting your opinions and angry, drunken louts cross the line into physical harassment, _you're_ not the problem. You're not the one at fault, and you're not the one who should be hauled in front of Judge McCaffery. You have every right to go against the grain, even in the other guy's home turf, and the law protects you as much as it'd protect the other guy if you started throwing punches.
These "First Amendment Zone" incidents are not based on security issues in the slightest; it's been repeatedly shown that sign-carriers are being segregated _specifically because of their ideologies_. Supporters stay; protestors get shuffled away, even during open-to-the-public events, to a place where Bush and his supporters don't have to listen to or see any contrary opinions. Public disagreement doesn't look good on TV cameras or on the front page, y'know.
Except that the last time I checked, this was still the United States of America, and it's not supposed to work that way.
(Note that I'm not saying that nonconformists _deserve_ to be harassed, physically or otherwise, whether they're at an Eagles game or a political rally. I'm saying that at events with high levels of emotion, us-against-them mentalities and rabble-rousing, which certainly includes both sports and politics, I'm not _surprised_ that it happens, and anyone who is surprised shouldn't be.)