Think About It

The other day I saw a headline about someone (a “heckler”) who was escorted out of a political speech.   I have to be honest with you, I didn’t read the story, but I must admit that I had a completely uninformed but emotional reaction.   My gut asked my brain, did they get what they wanted out of the exchange?   Few of us could honestly expect that if we showed up at an adversary’s event and start shouting them down that we would have any chance at having a rational exchange of ideas.   Yelling accusatory things in the midst of a public event is not going to bring change, it’s just going to promote anger and a measured reaction … in other words, being asked to leave.   Sometimes I wonder if that wasn’t the intent all along – the publicity that comes with being “persecuted”. Now, while this tends to make sense, I got to thinking about this on another level – on a personal level.   Have we ever publicly criticized people or berated them in a group of peop...