When did all the dissenters vanish?

http://www.amarillo.com/stories/053004/opi_kanelis.shtml ^ | 5/30/04 | JOHN KANELIS

[RichInOC]

If you think the dissenters have gone away over the last three years, you're too inattentive to be hired as a cub reporter, much less as editorial page editor.

[mountaineer]

Are we now free to express ourselves only if we support our president and his policies?

What an ass. All we hear is criticism of administration policies, or does this "journalist" not read what Gore, Pelosi, Kerry, Kennedy, Clinton, et al. are saying?

[Dr. Frank fan]

masturbatory straw-man

I hope writing this article made the author feel good.

[Willie Green]

I think all the "dissenters" vanished when the media began portraying extremist kooks like PETA, Ed Asner, Oprah and Michael Moore as "mainstream".

[rdb3]

There's dissent. Then there's treason.

Don't confuse the two. The problem occurs when treasonous speech is said to just be "dissent."

[ClearCase_guy]

I hear this crap all the time, and the stupidity boggles my mind. What an unsophisticated thinker!

Freedom: When lots of people criticize the government.
The death of Dissent: When lots of people criticize the criticizers.

Perhaps true freedom is when everyone can say whatever they want, without being arrested for it. Maybe THAT'S what the First Amendment is all about. This bozo seems to think that the First Amendment means his opinion is sacred and no one has the right to disagree with him. What an elitist!

[Sloth]

[Freebird Forever]

Protesting government policy through civil disobedience, which millions of Americans did during that time, remains an appropriate form of political expression SEDITION.

[Paul Atreides]

So, nobody has any right to dissent with the dissenters? Not only are they allowed to dissent, but, apparently, we must agree with what they say.

[Bob J]

Liberals, like the nazis, feel they should be able to express themselves free of criticism. These people are so brain dead they don't see the irony elephant in their own comments.

I am free to criticize anyone I want, but you are not free to criticize me.

Let me see if we can make this clear to them...

Criticizing you, even calling you unpatriotic, IS free speech (dumbsh_t)!

[tbpiper]

When did protest become unpatriotic?

When it gives aid an comfort to the enemy.

The chief North Vietnamese general recently thanked those who protested the war for helping him to win.

[BraveMan]

It stands for freedom, but certainly within the bounds of good taste and community standards.

The author advocates "Freedom Lite", the new, wholesome, Atkins-Friendly version. All the good taste and none of the casualties.

[pcx99]

The last time America ceased to be a land of dissenters was WWII when the country went out and remade the world.

When they got back the greatest generation gave birth to the baby boom generation, a bunch of ignorant self obsessed, whiney snots that has politisized a war of self defense in which the very future of this country and its future generation hinges.

The baby boomers will not be satisfied until they have ripped away the amazing victory of their children in Iraq and turn it into the same abject failure they created out of vietnam.

[Bob J]

It's unbelieveable, isn't it? The guy who write this...

John Kanelis is editorial page editor for the Amarillo Globe-News.

Nazi brownshirts infest the media.

[RGSpincich]

The reporter is dismayed that dissenters are not being heralded. Therefore, the problem must be the small number of dissenters not the flawed message of dissenters. Never mind that the latter perpetuates the former.

[Jim Noble]

When did protest become unpatriotic?

On September 11, 2001 at 8:47 AM.

[pabianice]

I cannot recall when the United States of America ceased being a land of dissenters; of arguers, of contrary thinking; of people blessed with the right, in the words of the very First Amendment to their Constitution, "to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

Gee. Maybe the same time you Liberals said there was no longer any Second Amendment. You know, how "the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed"?

[Psycho_Bunny]

This article raises the question "How many bong hits are too many, before you start writing an editorial?"

[BraveMan]

Dreamer, you know you are a dreamer
Well can you put your hands in your head, oh no!
I said dreamer, you're nothing but a dreamer
Well can you put your hands in your head, oh no!
I said "Far out, - What a day, a year, a laugh it is!"
You know, - Well you know you had it comin' to you,
Now there's not a lot I can do

Dreamer, you stupid little dreamer;
So now you put your head in your hands, oh no!
I said "Far out, - What a day, a year, a laugh it is!"
You know, - Well you know you had it comin' to you,
Now there's not a lot I can do.

Well work it out someday

If I could see something
You can see anything you want boy
If I could be someone-
You can be anyone, celebrate boy.
If I could do something-
Well you can do something,
If I could do anything-
Well can you do something out of this world?

Take a dream on a Sunday
Take a life, take a holiday
Take a lie, take a dreamer
dream, dream, dream, dream, dream along...

Dreamer, you know you are a dreamer
Well can you put your hands in your head, oh no!
I said dreamer, you're nothing but a dreamer
Well can you put your hands in your head, oh no!
OH NO!