ACTIVIST: To some, a dirty word

The 17-year-old Miss O’Brien, an activist who cares and is passionate, wants a voice in our community. She has a voice and she is in the newspaper and she has organized protests about climate control and gun control.

I am all for her having all the rights of any citizen when she is paying her way. When she is a productive, taxpaying, working person with a dog in the fight, and when she has studied and considered her positions after taking input from many different sources, then her opinions would be worthy of attention. Right now she is a child, with a child’s understanding of the world.

Because she is young and woefully unaware of the full story, it does not mean that she cannot effect change by protesting. It also does not mean that she has the slightest clue as to what she is doing and its ramifications. Truly, if I wanted to have change by mob behavior, I would move to a third world country or an American big city with a heavy dose of Democrat leadership. I would really like to see change come about as a result of elections, debate, adherence to the Constitution, and some degree of rational thinking, not emotionalism.

Like all of us, she will age and learn and be humble. Hopefully she will realize how little she knows and how deep her ignorance is. There is so much to know and so little time to assimilate it all.

I and many of my generation were living in a hot, humid, wet, leech-filled jungle hoping to see the next morning’s sunrise. Our clothes were rotting off us and we held our comrades as they bled to death in front of us. Our contemporaries at home were so certain they knew all the answers. They were activists and they were traitors to their nation. The word “activist” brings an acid burn in my stomach and bile to my throat. An activist who stirs a group to emotional actions is not compatible with our form of government. An activist who works legally, morally to effect an election or pass an amendment, law, ordinance is what George, Abe, John, Ben and John had in mind so many years ago. And if you cannot put a face and name to each of those first names, you are certainly remiss in your American history.

BOB HUNT

Post Falls