Some of the protests at town hall meetings across the country have been a riot. Literally. Thankfully we have avoided serious injuries thus far, despite a NH protester who was packing heat during President Obama’s recent town hall (left).

Seeing stuff like this makes me wonder why there can’t be civil disagreements, and sane discussions about health care, without name calling, demonization, or worse – violence.

But looking back on our history, American politics has never really been civil. Although close friends late in life, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams had fierce policy disagreements, and attacked each other ferociously behind the scenes, as well as in the press. It took many years for them to put aside their differences and reconcile.

Abraham Lincoln’s decisions were questioned and attacked mercilessly in the press, often by members of his own cabinet, who either wanted the presidency for themselves, or strongly disagreed about his Civil War policy at the time.

And ignorant protesters? They too are nothing new.

Jefferson’s quote referenced in the sign above is “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots & tyrants.” The rest of that quote basically says rising up, even if you don’t have all the facts, is better than sitting back and doing nothing. Jefferson’s point was that it’s good and proper to take an interest and a stake in one’s government.

But he also understood that the blood watering that tree of liberty was just as much that of the uninformed masses, who perhaps didn’t have all the facts at their disposal, but took up arms anyway, versus the occasional tyrant:

“What country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon & pacify them…What signify a few lives lost in a century or two?”

In other words, don’t condemn the uninformed; get the information out there, but deal with the recalcitrant if violence continues in the face of the truth. Fresh from the Revolution, Jefferson expected a few deaths here and there to make a point, lest anarchy rule.

But we are not in the 18th century anymore. Given the ease with which we can find all the information necessary to make sound decisions, bringing guns into presidential town halls and carrying signs talking about “watering the tree of liberty” to me, at least, seems hopelessly and ridiculously outdated.

–Brian

In the old days, people wanting attention would bring a soap box into town, and they’d stand on it to make a speech. Seems kind of silly in these days of YouTube, not to mention microphones and amplifiers, but everyone still knows what it means. And so, up on my proverbial soap box I go for a little speechifyin’.

I put together a harmless little video slide show featuring pictures of our summer so far, and legally purchased a song that seemed appropriate for it, adding it as the video soundtrack in my little amateur production. While attempting to upload my video on a popular social networking site which shall remain nameless, I received a “copyright infringement” notice. My video was removed, and I was threatened with legal action if I tried to upload the video again.

I thought that was kind of harsh.

Apparently the song that I purchased legally from iTunes can’t be used as a video soundtrack since I don’t own the rights to it. A record label does. Even when videos are set to “private” meant to be seen by only friends, they are either taken down after the fact, or prevented from being uploaded completely.

I am all for artists getting their fair share, my business is promoting music after all, but this seems a bit crazy to me. Who, exactly, is benefiting from hearing a cool song used as background music to my slide show? The artist. Someone caring enough to watch the video may be inspired to buy the CD or download the track themselves if they like it. I paid for the song, I’m not offering the MP3 as a free download for anyone to steal, I’m certainly not making any money by using the song, so what is the harm? Wouldn’t that constitute Fair Use of the song?

Nope.

It amazes me that something as simple and innocuous as this can be construed as illegal activity, but lawyers and litigators rule the roost these days.

As I step down from my soap box, I wonder if these types of things were even debated in the days of soap box speeches.

“The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.” –William Shakespeare, Henry VI, written 1590.

Guess so…

–Brian