I was reading an article this morning from the online version of USAToday concerning a woman of Asian origin who interrupted the welcome speech of Presidents Bush and Hu. Now the pretestor and the outburst was nothing new or notable, but the comments were interesting. Of course, some people praised and applauded her exercising free speech while others damned her for being rude and disrespectful. I’m not going to go into the security loopholes that let her get as close as she did (they seem to work in those so called “town meetings” Bush held), rather into a discussion of rights versus respect in this particular situation.

First of all, the woman had the right to be heard. We pride ourselves on our freedom of speech (though we seem to allow the government to limited it willy-nilly) and we usually applaud anyone who practices it. Though I believe there is a time and a place for everything, I don’t see what is so disrespectful of the woman expressing her opinion at that time. So we had two heads of state there, one of which runs a suppressive regime (and another who seems to want to create one… no, I do not like Bush), is that being disrespectful. I can remember numerous occasions when American Presidents went overseas and were interrupted by protestors and such – no one ever said that was disrespectful and wrong. Yes, we have to weigh the consequences with the message, but sometimes the message must come out.

Now what is so bad about this is that the woman is protesting against the ban on Falun Gong, a religious cult with an unsavory history at best. But then China bans other religions as well, Christian, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, etc. I guess the nay sayers in the comments to the article would have been more kind if she had been protesting about how Christians are treated in China.

Which bears to ask the question, how can such a “devout Christian” president work with President Hu?

Feelin’ tired

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