A Young Man Examines Our Cause
By SEAN HANNON
July 17, 2003
It was an easy July evening as we stood on Ruth’s bridge with our signs of peace and protest, our posters buffeted gently by the warm summer breezes blowing off the Saugatuck. A young man stopped by to talk to us. He recently graduated from high school and has seen us on the bridge often. He said that he agreed with what we were saying but he came to ask us what we thought we were accomplishing by standing here as we do for a few hours out of each week.
He listened to us in a quiet and non-committal way. I watched him as Patricia and I explained our personal need to respond to events, of our desire to lift our voices in dissent to unconscionable acts, and of our resolve to not be crushed beneath the weight of so many unchallenged lies. Skeptical but open, he nodded with understanding as I spoke of the ripple effect of our simple action, and of the many ways I believe it works to activate and energize a positive energy in others. We’re certainly seeing it in the ever-increasing number of people honking and vigorously cheering our message and tenacity. When Patricia asked him about his own thoughts on world events, he responded that he believed he was growing up at a really bad time, and he worried that despite all that we were doing, those in power would be there for a long time to come.
We told him that no matter how dark it may seem now, lies and deceptions inevitably give way to the robustness of truth, and we believe we are starting to see the cracks forming already. More and more voices from men and women with the highest integrity and decades of loyal service to their country are speaking out. A critical mass will one way or another be reached, followed by a demand from the American people for a real accounting of their government’s actions. And it will likely be a furious public, as many come to realize how monstrously they were lied to.
He left us, pleased to have taken the time to meet and talk, but still a bit enigmatic about how he felt about what we were doing. He was thinking. He was examining. He wasn’t willing to take any of it at face value. My God, how refreshing is that?
