Twelve persons from the Texarkana area. That’s the number a town this size would have had present among the 50,000 war dissenters gathered recently in the nation’s capitol at the Lincoln Memorial and Washington Monument.
In a country based on majority rule, minorities (.02½ percent of the population) make a loud noise. And these loud noises are reverberating around the world as spokesmen for the majority of the population.
Dissent within the law is a privilege in a democratic country. But the recent protest, which involved carrying Viet Cong flags, unprintable slogans and disorderly behavior towards those appointed to enforce the law, does not fulfill the interpretation of lawful dissent.
Moreover, the minority’s violence and lawlessness are drowning out the voices of a majority of their countrymen. National respect for law and order has nosedived to an all-time low.
Whatever happened to the tenet that in a democracy the majority rule is the basis for operating the country. No American is happy about the war in Vietnam, but the vast majority support their government’s commitment there, and its struggle to bring it to a satisfactory end.
How do a dozen persons become the spokesman for a town this size, who is speaking for 49,988?