Protesters are good comedy

By Chris Morrill

I bought last Sunday's Southeast Missourian intending to read the news. Instead, I ended up reading a slapstick comedy.

The source of the knee-slapping? The articles about the local peace protesters.

Protesting a war that has been technically over since April leaves a bit to be desired.

If these peace advocates truly wish us to pull out of Iraq immediately, they are naive. Pulling out without a proper reconstruction would be unspeakably cruel to the Iraqi people.

Leaving Iraq in the lurch is also disingenuous, because these same peace protesters would turn right around and call President Bush a heartless jerk for not finishing the job.

You can't win with most these folks, because their arguments aren't ideological. They're political. Had a hypothetical President Gore gone to war in Iraq, most of these protesters would have put away the peace signs and jumped on the bandwagon immediately. Instead, it's President Bush at the helm, for whom they hold a visceral, deep-seated hatred. Therefore they bash him relentlessly. It's instinct.

To see these protesters question whether or not Iraq is better off without Hussein & Company truly reveals the depth of their myopia. Falling all over themselves to smear Bush in any way, they overlook mass graves, torture, children killed and buried with their dolls and any number of other very un-liberal things. Folks who claim to be enlightened should have a lot to be happy about in Iraq. But they won't, because they can't give the president one iota of credit for anything. Ever.

In the article, Robert Polack is quoted as saying: "There is also a serious question of whether or not democracy can take hold in that country."

Little does Polack realize that if a Republican were to say the same thing about Haiti or Liberia, they would be immediately hit with cries of racism. To suggest that certain people are incapable of embracing freedom and human rights is beyond the pale and should be condemned by all.

It's also very noble of these professors to brag about how they keep politics out of the classroom. Noble, but untrue.

I remember my political science professor at Southeast Missouri State University showing up on Election Day 1992 proudly wearing a Clinton/Gore button and grinning like the Cheshire cat. Clinton and Gore are Democrats. This same fellow ran for political office several years after that as a Democrat. Don't even get me started about the philosophy professor who strutted into class wearing a black armband the day the bombing started during the first Persian Gulf War.

It's a free country, and I wouldn't wish to stop people from speaking their minds if I could. But at least be up front about your biases. Admit what you are.

My bottom line is: I don't want to flip off the protesters or yell anything at them. That shouldn't be tolerated or encouraged, especially when children are present. To be truthful, I just don't think they're worth the physical effort behind either act.

I prefer to just laugh at them.

Chris Morrill is a Scott City resident.