Who gets to protest?

David Sleeper’s recent op-ed, “If War Doesn’t Affect You, Don’t Protest” (BDN, Feb. 16), was ridiculous. It’s absurd to suggest that Americans aren’t affected by a deadly, illegal war that costs American taxpayers $200 million a day and is seen around the world as the latest example of U.S. imperial ambitions. This logic of don’t protest unless “you have a dog in the fight” is the same logic that would argue unless you had a child killed by a drunken driver, you shouldn’t protest driving drunk.

The First Amendment of the Bill of Rights guarantees us the freedom of speech and the right to peaceably assemble, and to petition the government. And as long as corrupt administrations like that of George W. Bush’s insist on creating illegal wars like the one in Iraq, people like me will be petitioning the government.

David Sleeper needs to remember that every U.S. citizen has a dog in the fight because the United States military represents the people of the United States.

John Hafford

Millinocket