Minuteman storms out of Democracy Now! interview [VIDEO]

Posted by Evan Derkacz at 2:02 PM on October 12, 2006.

Ahh, the state of dialogue in the nation. To protest the colossal idiocy and bigotry of Minuteman founder Jim Gilchrist (Jesus is coming back simply to reclaim his name from this pusbag), students at Columbia University rushed the stage on which he was speaking, unfurled a banner, and got all up in his grill.

Some violence broke out and each side claims it was the other. From the videos it's difficult to tell. The first video, from the university's TV station, documents the event. The second, from Democracy Now!, shows what happens when an informed and unafraid person goes toe to toe with a bigot in the ring of ideas. The bigots run, crying for their bankies.*

***

This is a tough one, but first things first: It's not a violation of Freedom of Speech as some are claiming. Freedom of Speech is a Constitutionally granted protection from government interference in some messages it disagrees with. It's not a right to say anything anywhere that must be granted. We may value the idea that people should be able to speak without being interrupted but, alas, it's not Constitutionally protected.

I won't waste much time on the racism of the Minutemen. The Southern Poverty Law Center's done a great job of noting the overlap of White Power...

groups and the Minuteman Project:

"The day after the Minuteman rally in Naco, the two Alliance members there — one of whom identified himself as "Sam Adams" — were assigned to an observation post about a mile from McCutchen's location. They arrived there after a 10-minute "training session," driving to the post as they blasted white power music.

"We understand why Gilchrist and [project co-organizer Chris] Simcox have to talk all this P.C., crap," said one. "It's all about playing to the media. That's fine. While we're here, it's their game and we'll play by their rules. Once Minuteman's over, though, we might just have to come back and do our own thing."

And this, from an undercover CBS reporter:

These are anti-immigration vigilantes, taking action, mobilizing in the Arizona desert, driven by a conviction.

Pineapple 6 says, "These f___ing Mexicans. They will kill you. They don't give a f__k."

That Mexican immigrants are public enemy number one.

Fred Puckett says, "And once you shoot a couple of these son of a b@#$%es, they'll think twice."

As racism expert Dave Neiwert has noted, many reporters are fine just letting the Minutemen "blow smoke." So the anger and disgust of the Columbia protesters is more than understandable. It's outrageous that Gilchrist and his crew aren't pariahs. It should be dangerous to your reputation to invite him anywhere.

That said, to rush up to the stage and interrupt a speaker in such a direct fashion just runs the risk of turning this bozo into a victim, and a good-hearted protest into a melee. For the love of God, if you're going to do something like this, plan it in advance, get a camera into a good position, and make sure every protester is passive and non-threatening. But that's not really the issue.

The irony of the Democracy Now! clip, is that it shows where progressive strength lies: In ideas; in intellectual and emotional courage. Public displays of disagreement and protest are powerful, but to rely too much on muscle, on brute force, on shouting more loudly, is to win the battle and lose the war. The medium is the message.


*Bankie is baby-speak for Special Blanket.

Tagged as: minutemen, immigration, video, protest

Evan Derkacz is an AlterNet editor. He writes and edits PEEK, the blog of blogs.