I think otherwise.
Over the past weekend, President Obama was at a rally at Philidelphia's Vernon Park to convince Democrats to "Get Out The Vote". During the rally, an author had thrown a copy of his book at Obama. Although the book missed, the Secret Service interviewed the author (according to Mark Knoller of CBS) . The author claimed that he did not intend to cause any harm but wanted to make sure that President Obama had a copy of his book. After questioning the author, the Secret Service released the him.
At least this man had clothes on. Earlier on during the weekend campaign, a streaker ran in front of Obama. The streaker is revealed to be Juan James Rodriguez. Rodriguez sprinted in front of Obama with no clothes and with a website written on his chest. Apparently, the website offered $1 million dollars to anyone who could successfully pull of this publicity stunt. Rodriguez was arrested.
What are your thoughts on this? Personally. I think that this is simply ridiculous, and I think the author of the book, although a strong supporter of Obama should have been given a fine or some sort of mild punishment. Throwing objects at the President of the United States is simply something you do not do. The streaker on the other hand, should receive a more extreme punishment. It was simply an act of outright stupidity and I'm sure it's illegal. Simply walking around stark naked in public is a violation of the law; So, sprinting stark naked in front of the President is definitely going to involve some legal issues. The President of the United States is a figure not to be disrespected. (In fact, no one deserves to have a book thrown at them or a streaker run in front of them.) It's really sad to know people would do really dumb things for money.
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5 comments:
It's ridiculous to think that the man could justify his actions with the simple wish of Obama wanting to own a copy of his book. To me, that seems a little suspicious, and also unnecessary. Chances are that Obama is now LESS likely to read the book after the author's poorly thought-out actions took place.
Running stark naked in front of anyone is considered to be "indecent exposure." I would hope that Rodriguez kept this in mind, but seeing as how he was "offered" (I highly doubt that anyone would actually willingly pay someone to run naked in front of the President) a million dollars, it was clear that Rodriguez had other things on his mind. Rodriguez ought to be ashamed and embarrassed for what he did because his actions were not only shameful, but also incredibly disrespectful.
I personally believe that behavior such as streaking is acceptable if it is done to make a statement. For example Lady Godiva (1040–1080) , an Anglo-Saxon noblewoman, once nakedly rode down the streets of England on her horse in order to make the statement that taxes should be lowered. I think if the streaker is making a clear and important statement, than he should be respected just like any other protester.
You stated that "The President of the United States is a figure not to be disrespected". Although this may sound crass, I think disrespect is sometimes needed in order to get a point across. Saturday Night Live has made fun of and disrespected every American president since the shows existence and is repeatedly applauded for making bold statements about American politics through their disrespectful sketches. If everyone kept quiet, and respected what the president chose to do, there would be no need for free speech, something that all of us use everyday and should be thankful to have.
I think that although people should be allowed to exercise their right to free speech, there is a certain limit to just how much "disrespect" is allowable. The SNL skits are a form of comedy, and are a satirical way of showing what's wrong with our government, but streaking is hardly the best way to get a point across.
What I don't understand is why the author didn't try to just hand over the book to Obama. It's not as if Obama is certain to reject the book, and it definitely was a case of bad publicity.
On the topic of streaking, I believe that it really should not be used, even for purposes of drawing attention to an important issue. One must consider that there are other ways of drawing attention much more acceptable than streaking, which many people find offensive. If streaking is the only way you can think of to get a point across, there's something wrong.
I think that the throwing of the book at Obama was uncalled for. If the author wanted Obama to have a copy of his book, he could have simply given it to him after the rally, and if he was unable to do so, he could have given it to "his people" and they could have HANDED it to him instead of having thrown it at him. I think this man was either not thinking straight when he did this or he just wanted his 15 minutes of fame for having done something simply stupid and uncalled for.
I think that the streaker is a stupid man. Why on earth would he think that he would get paid for streaking in front of Obama? I think that the people that told the streaker this, did so in order to get a good laugh out of a dumb action done by a stupid person. Like Sandy said, sometimes certain things that are out of line and disrespectful need to be taken into consideration because we need certain things to get done and we need to get our point across, either by doing so the easy way or the alternative the hard way.
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