soupwell said:
She (Sheehan) irritates the everliving hell out of me, but I have to say I'm disturbed she was removed from the audience because of her clothing. Seriously, how do you get ejected from the heart of our democracy, right in front of the president and congress, for making a non-threatening peaceful statement? I know this is standard procedure for presidential appearances, but how did it get that way!? If you can justify it legally, how can you stand yourself morally?
Sorry, I know this is OT, just something that really bugs me.
this is what happenned...
she was planning to display her shirt at a more high profile time during the sotu to get more attention, but she inadvertantly did so before it even started while people were still funneling in...
she obviously already had a bullseye on her in the ss eyes, and she stood up to nonchalantly unzip her sweatshirt because she was hot, and sat back down, this exposed the tshirt briefly and they grabbed her and escorted her out, she was detained for a couple hours as i understand it and all charges were dropped and the capitol police issued a statement saying they had made a mistake and were incorrect for removing her...
its important to note that there was no hubub or major event that caused any sort of attention to them during her removal, she was peacefully removed, two guys just had a hold of each arm...
now, my .02 fwiw, is that yes, freedom of speach and all that should permit you to wear what you want, and at first glance, even at the sotu, BUT...
the sotu is an iconic, historical, tradition with extreme importance to both the nation and the world...clothing and demonstrations of such that was intended by Sheehan would have detracted from the sacredness of the sotu and disrupted a public assembly and disturbed the piece to the extent that it would impeded the national interest which exists to have a full, uninterrupted sotu, and would have detracted from the PUBLICS right to hear the sotu...
the publics rights supercedes the individuals in this case...
thats the argument and my .02