Rock-throwing lawyers
I swear I heard the phrase "rock-throwing lawyers" on NPR this morning.
Hard to believe, but legions of grey-suited lawyers in Pakistan have taken to the streets to protest President Pervez Musharraf's assumption of dictatorial powers, which of course means an end to the rule of law and the Pakistani constitution. Their lawyers are bit more, how shall we say it, aggressive than American lawyers are. Instead of hurling writs, they use stones.
The only thing of late that has gotten lawyers and judges worked up in Harrisburg, Pa., is the possibility that the Federal courthouse will be moved out of the downtown to Sixth and Reilly streets. They're pushing for the demolition of perfectly good, taxable buildings in the downtown rather than have to drive a few blocks to the new courthouse, or, in the case of the judges, be too far away from their favorite downtown restaurants and nail salons. The identity of the judge who moaned about the lack of a nail salon at Sixth & Reilly remains as closely guarded as Dick Cheney's "secret location."
What you'll never see is Brooks Brothers-clad lawyers in the streets of Harrisburg or anywhere protesting the endless detention of captured enemy soldiers at Guantanamo, denied a fair trial or even access to the American legal system. You won't see them parading in front of the White House demanding an end to water-boarding or other forms of torture currently allowed by the Bush Administration.
But no nail salon? To the barricades, my comrades!
We Americans really aren't much for protests in the street, despite a few big marches in the late 1960s and early 1970s to protest the Vietnam War, and others demanding civil rights for blacks. A French friend asked me the other day if there would be demonstrations to protest PPL Electric shutting off the power to a family in Steelton (PPL says it followed the rules). A fire linked to a candle being used for light killed two children in the family and critically injured the mother and another child. For my friend, it was a logical question. That would happen in France. As an American, I was caught off guard and e-mailed back that I doubted it.
We may rant, we may rave, but we don't do it in the streets for the most part.