David Swanson
These are the incidents – and they may appear small at first – to which we have a duty as ordinary citizens to respond. Silence at these times is a choice and an action, and one that makes us complicit in rising fascism. Nonviolent protest must always be protected. It is often what persuades us to think again about things that we are doing unthinkingly. Next month we will all be talking and singing about the season of peace and peace on earth. Yet, we have made assaulting a messenger of peace a respectable behavior. We need to think. And we need to begin by protecting the right of David Airhart to help us do so.
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David Swanson is creator of MeetWithCindy.org, co-founder of the AfterDowningStreet.org coalition, a writer and activist, and the Washington Director of Democrats.com. He is a board member of Progressive Democrats of America, and serves on the Executive Council of the Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild, TNG-CWA. He has worked as a newspaper reporter and as a communications director, with jobs including Press Secretary for Dennis Kucinich’s 2004 presidential campaign, Media Coordinator for the International Labor Communications Association, and three years as Communications Coordinator for ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. Swanson obtained a Master’s degree in philosophy from the University of Virginia in 1997. His website is www.davidswanson.org