Reply #21: thank you. this is my response to all the people who say: [View All]

[blueraven95]

"We have more important issues to deal with"



I understand what you are saying, but I think you underestimate people.

We can manage to be focused on many issues at the same time.

During the late 1950s and all of the 1960s, while the Civil Right Movement was gearing up and gaining momentum, the United States was dealing with Vietnam, the Cold War, the Cuban Revolution, the Drug Culture, the government's role in the economy, space exploration, among many, many other issues, and we still managed to bring real, positive change to the lives of millions of Americans.

I remember reading that Martin Luther King Jr. was asked to hold off in his protests, because while the rights he was fighting for were important, there were so many other issues that needed the public's attention first. His response was essentially the same as Hillel's (from thousands of years earlier) "If not now, when?"

As far as I'm concerned, we as citizens are required by our Constitution to stand up for the basic rights of all of our citizens, those of "life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness", we can not stand by when their rights are trampled on and remain good citizens, or even good people. The outcry here is appropriate and timely, and we should encourage it, not stifle it. We are not single issue people, but multi-focused on all the issues, and we can, and will find solutions for all of them.