The scolding in S.E. Cupp’s latest column, “Some pro-Palestinian protesters are unserious, and only hurt their cause,” is an old saw that reliably makes the rounds when people dare to protest ongoing bloodshed here at home or elsewhere in the world.
The nature of protest is that it lies outside typical avenues of debate and objection. It is meant to draw attention and interrupt the status quo. I’d argue that blocking interstate traffic is the opposite of unserious. It is high-visibility and requires careful planning.
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For the past three months, millions around the world have marched and spoken up in support of Palestinians. In that time, the brutality against the people of Gaza (and now the West Bank) has only increased. So I wonder what methods of protest would be acceptable to Ms. Cupp. When senators’ mailboxes are full and they’re not listening anyway; when we’ve marched, posted online, made endless appeals to anyone with power to do something, and are met with not just indifference but contempt — what’s next?
Cupp’s assertion that making people miss flights or appointments “is itself a version of indiscriminate hostage taking” is laughably privileged. Our country’s low tolerance for inconvenience is, to put it mildly, embarrassing.
To keep this in perspective: what’s worse, being stuck in traffic for a few hours, or slowly starving to death after your entire family has been murdered? I think I know how the people of Gaza would respond.
Let’s focus on why people are protesting, not the protest itself.
Katie Hannon, Albany Park
Strong case for cease-fire
State Reps. Kelly Cassidy and Will Guzzardi, thank you, thank you. Finally progressive leaders have articulated why there can and should be a negotiated cease-fire in Israel.
The state leaders’ recent op-ed in the Sun-Times is the most articulate, reasoned rationale to stop the violence that I have read. It is the roadmap to peaceful coexistence. I hope leaders pay attention.
Bill Ryan, LaGrange
GOP should be voted O-U-T
Three years ago, on Jan. 6, armed insurrectionists stormed the Capitol to stop the orderly transfer of power after they lost a free and fair election. Many of these people may have been white nationalists who reject the principle that all people are created equal.
Unfortunately, it appears that one party wants to return to the “good old days” of racial segregation and strictly defined gender roles and impose their form of Christianity on all of us. We must defeat them overwhelmingly at the ballot box or risk losing our democracy to fascism. They have already shown us what they will do if the election is close.
Michelle L. Oxman, Evanston
