Then his actions would be then classified as “civil disobedience” wouldn’t it? That used to be honorable. Although we would sometimes wish it, we cannot impose upon other people our wishes.
Some may perhaps wish to write to Mr. Keyes in a tone of mutual respect for his committment, and the cause, and the issue, but explain their thoughts, and what the strollers felt like to them...
However, one that gives excellent oratories on understanding the rule of law, also understands the consequences of an act of Civil Disobedience.
As for the university’s policies — they are free to have the rules of their wishes (they are still a private school, eh?).
There’s no reason they couldn’t protest in front of the campus, or around it. Obviously Keyes and his fellow protestors didn’t think that would be “good enough” to make the point. Therefore, they decided to perform an act of civil disobedience.
No one was harmed, no one was injured. If anything the person’s who were arrested are the ones paying the price (through time in jail, a record, fines, etc...). I thought Acts of Civil Disobedience were well-respected in Conservative “circles”. I don’t think I’m wrong in that, am I?
I agree that there is nothing necessarily dishonorable about “civil disobedience” and there are times, such as these, where that may be the only course of action when a person, or group of citizens, are trying to change a law or legislation.
I looked up the definition of “civil disobedience” (as I can’t always trust my memory). The definition is: “Refusal to obey civil laws in an effort to induce change in governmental policy or legislation, characterized by the use of passive resistance or other nonviolent means.”
The definition of “civil law” is, “The body of laws of a state or nation dealing with the rights of private citizens..
Notre Dame has its own “private” rules. It appears that the protest Alan Keyes participated in took place on “private property”. He was not breaking a “civil law”, per se, he was trespassing on private property.
The protest wasn’t wrong. The message wasn’t wrong. The way they went about protesting was. Again, that’s just my opinion. I don’t like it when the left-wing wackos disrespect private property in order to get their message across so I’d be a hypocrite if I said it was o.k. as long as the protest was one that I agreed with.
It is one thing to get attention for one’s cause. It is quite another to get the wrong kind of attention. The MSM will play this as a small group of wackos who trespassed and had to be arrested. I do not see how that in any way helps our cause.