Speaking of speech …

Winston Churchill once said, “Anyone who is not liberal at age 20 doesn’t have a heart, and anyone who is not conservative at age 40 doesn’t have a brain.”

That being said, on Monday I went with my heart and brain to see George W. Bush speak. Dewhurst spoke first, and he started with a joke: “[The rain outside] represents the Democrats.” His comment surprised me; I didn’t know Republicans told jokes. Bush said exactly what you’d guess he’d say: Medicare this, terrorists that and fixin’. That’s right, little ones, our president used colloquialisms in his speech. If it were an essay, I’d have deducted two points. Twice, he properly used the objective pronoun whom, and I swear he winked at me after doing so.

Though they rattle with humor, my jokes don’t matter. What matters is what happened.

Outside, a group consisting of roughly 100 liberal souls protested against the president’s policies. The police insisted they stay within the “Free Speech Zone.” While I understand regulating free speech, I find the term “Free Speech Zone” insulting and awful. Following what must have been hours of intellectual reflection, some SMU students drove past the protesters, shouting insults. How brave …

The organizers of the event must have been happy to keep the protesters away from the action, and they must have been overjoyed when it rained on the anti-war types. It’s best to keep them outside, right?

Oops.

Five minutes into Bush’s speech, a chant overpowered the low volume of the microphone, and throughout Moody the audience heard “No War in Iraq.” The group, which consisted of about 10 people, held up a sign saying the same. The president went mute and, reacting on instinct, he pursed his lips. In a rush of patriotic passion, the crowd retorted, “U-S-A, U-S-A!”

Oh, my aching head.

I think the people in the crowd have forgotten their history.

Protest put us where we are today, children. The Protestants had a lot to do with the starting of our country. Know them? Or how about eighth grade, specifically the U.S. History class – anyone remember that? Some interesting things happened in the 1760s. The Boston Tea Party occurred, essentially one big protest. As it was, the colonists didn’t like things like the Tea Act and other levees, so they protested.

Skip forward about 200 years. Because of a fear of communism injected into American culture by the likes of such half-wits as Senator McCarthy, we waged war with a few small, east-Asian countries. They were called Korea and Vietnam. In Korea, we fought for a few years, sending many young people to their death, and then we left, changing essentially nothing. So you can understand why in a few years when Americans were sent to Vietnam for the same sort of affair, many protested.

When someone protests, it does not mean they do not love their country. In fact, it more closely means the opposite. Like a mother worried for her child, a protester cares for their country.

But no, thought the crowd, these are tree-hugging, pinko hippies.

To those who stood in the crowd, chanting like ignorant idiots, listen. Those protesters were being far more American than you were. Just because they do not hold your particular political agenda, you have no right to call them un-American. We live in a country where our right to speak comes first and foremost. And while you also have the right to speak, when you unite in order to muffle others’ voices, you come off as a fascist and idiotic group of clones.

Am I alone on this one? I’m a lot closer to 20 than I am 40, so maybe that’s it. Readers: write me an e-mail. Tell me that you hate me or that you agree. Just tell me; I’m curious.