Are you serious?

So, I haven't said much about this whole Occupy [Wall Street, insert other locale here, etc.] thing. I support people being angry about flawed systems. I support people who are fed up and feel they have no options for [feeding their family, getting an education to get a decent job, paying for health insurance, insert other plight here].

I do wish they had a little more of a point. And to all the people who say "no man, you just don't get it man, that's like, the point, man!" I say: lay off the joint and decide what you want.

These are not the bus boycotts. (Insert any other notable rights campaigns of the last century: voting for non-white citizens or women, minimum wage and child labor laws, etc.) Right now, you do not have a point. It is not enough to stand against something-- sure, everyone (ok, the great majority of people, anyhow) are in general against the same things-- death, war, bullies, hunger, kicking puppies. Where people tend to differ is how to go about solving those issues. So stop being lazy, and come up with a solution. (When I say things like this, I start to worry that I'm getting more conservative as I get older. But I asked around, and reportedly I'm not. I'm just far more interested in actual revolutionary ideas, than to just hearing a bunch of people whine in parks.)

But the point of this post was not primarily to rant about others' lack of a point. It was because I finally saw something the other day which made me pause and say, "are you serious?"

A well-informed, well-educated colleague of mine posted on their facebook page:

"The more I read and see, the more I realize that we live in a police state. The first amendment no longer means anything."

My thoughts on this are not solely in response to this one person's expression, but to a culmination of similar ideas that I've witnessed, from people around me, on social media, from the news media, etc. This notion that it's police brutality whenever they shut down a protest, and that first amendment rights mean you can do whatever you want. I'll address this notion in its two parts.

First off, police state?? Most of us have never lived in a police state, and I'm pretty sure those who have, might be offended by that statement. I have the freedom to work where I please, go to school where I please, use what form of transportation I please, wear what I please (well, as long as I am in fact wearing something), go by whatever name I please, worship who and where and in what manner I please, support whichever political party or candidate I please (and vote to express that support), live where I please, associate with whom I please (and do all of these things as a woman, no less)... do I really need to continue?

Now, are there any law enforcement abuses occurring during all this?
I'm sure. Law enforcement abuses occur at times, anyway-- and with more to enforce, those abuses will similarly become more frequent. Just as I'm certain that some of the protesters are doing illegal and even dangerous things.

I have never lived in a police state, nor been a witness to such a state of living. But I have met people who have to be cautious of publicizing that they are Christians, because it puts their lives at risk. And there are places much, much worse than I have been. There are police (or military) states in this world, so let's respect that, and give that title the reverence (in the sense of taking it seriously, and not assigning it flippantly to relatively very free and privileged societies) that it deserves.

Second part: the first amendment. Oh, that silly little first amendment. Most often in my life these days, if I'm discussing the first amendment it's in response to one of the youth I work with, who like to claim their first amendment rights as a reason why they can swear or threaten people or use otherwise inappropriate language... on our (private) property. And why we (who are not at all governmental agents) cannot tell them not to, based on said constitutional rights. (They also like to quote the 4th amendment at times, with similar misconception.)

So let's take a look at this here amendment, which tells us that:"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

The right to assemble does not mean that you can do so on someone else's private property, just as saying that you can't camp overnight in places where it is illegal to do so is not an abridgment of your freedom of speech. The freedom of speech is not a freedom of expression-- it does not mean you can do drugs while "occupying," nor defecate all over retail establishments. And please do petition the government! [Insert my "I wish the protesters would start demanding actual stuff already" rant, from above.]

In summary: Overdramatization does not help a cause, it merely belittles even more serious situations and lessens the credibility of this one. Also, failing to advocate for anything specific soon makes people weary of your whining.