Most Colleges, with the exception of the few conservative ones, have your typical cluster of left-
wing radicals exhorting their views on campus. This is not surprising since the majority of college
professors have sympathies towards the left one way or another and are more willing to work
with them to arrange protests or festivals of ‘resistance’. Still, even if you disagree with the
protester’s politics, they’re a good sign that our democratic system is still healthy and stable
since they’re free to do their protests without getting brutally beaten or executed simply for
having a different opinion. I’ll relate some of my own personal experiences with them during my
attendance at college.

I have a friend who is a radical communist, however, he’s one of the more independent minded
left-wingers I have ever met and I enjoy his unpretentious, down-to-earth sense of humor.
Although I do get irritated with his stereotyping at times; we usually just talk about our favorite
movies, shows and the personal things that annoy us from time to time. However, I have
sometimes scolded him for stereotyping people (Especially blonde women). But we get along
pretty well.

Now my friend had invited me to a few protest rallies against the War in Iraq. I accepted the
invitation because I enjoy spending time with him and his goofiness undercuts the more somber
mood of some of the other protesters. I felt rather out of place in the group because I felt like the only non-left-wing Capitalist protester who was against the War in Iraq. Still, we never got
arrested by the police for our protest nor did they attack us with no provocation. There was a
guy who booed at us from his apartment complex, but that was the extent of the complaints
against us. The only drama that I went through in those marches was that I needed to
desperately go to the bathroom at one march and during another march; I got rather sweaty and
tired. The very fact that I was able to participate in those marches easily without having to go
through grueling interrogations nor did I have a hard time finding the group in the first place
shows that free speech is still valued here, even if some people will respond with rudeness.
Another good example of why the left-wing groups show that we’re still the land of the free is the
existence of Revolution Books. As the New York Revolution Books web site says, they’re a
communist group dedicated to ‘making a better world’ and selling books with a Marxist
perspective and fiction from non-white writers. I mostly go over there because my professors
often order the class readings through Revolutions Books. I once went over there occasionally for fun, but I soon realized that if I kept going there, I’d probably drive some of the communists
insane with my constant questioning of the left. So I decided that it would be better just to not
visit the store anymore and go spend most of my time at Rainbow Books. Still, in all of my time
living near the place, I have never heard any news about it being vandalized by some irate
person who disagreed with the political views of the store nor did any right-wing radical fringe
movement tried to destroy it because they were ‘terrorists’ or any other inflammatory label
hastily drawn by the group.

They don’t get as much exposure to the mainstream crowd as other bookstores do, but that has
more to do with the fact that people tend to rely on well-known sources for their information
rather than any vast conspiracy against them. Of course, that may be a good thing since more
exposure will encourage those with an ax to grind to get into an inflammatory argument with the
workers from Revolutionary Books. I remember this argument that one of the Revolutionary
Books employees had with somebody who had ties to the military. Both side were not able to
convince the other of the ‘rightness’ of their viewpoint and I spent some time telling the military
lady that not all Hawaiians were like that employee. While I’m sure she was grateful for the
comfort, I’m not sure that I got through to her. Still, they’re not jailed or horribly executed for
being Communists; if the protestors do get arrested, it’s because they’ve trespassed on private
property or an asshole in the group thinks that goading the police with physical harassment is a
noble act against the establishment.

I believe one of the reasons why the left-wing groups are flourishing besides the fact that
democracy is still alive and well is the fact that the public is swinging toward favoring a Democrat
president. The Republican senate did a really lousy job with the War on Terror regardless if it
was a good idea or not in the first place. As a result, most of the public has become disenchanted
with them and is looking towards the Democrats for new idea on how to deal with Iraq and bin
Laden as well as our troubled economy among other things. It also helps that Barrack Obama is a
charismatic, articulate speaker, which definitely helped him to win the election.

However, there is a recent event that happened at UH Manoa that is one of the best examples of
how the presence of left-wingers shows that our democracy is still alive and well. A well-known
employee of Revolution Books was escorted off the premise for causing a disturbance within in
campus grounds. According to the April 30th Ka Leo article, the woman, C.J. Jong, was escorted off campus because she had called a female Campus Centre Representive 'A Good German', implying that she was blindly loyal. Now at first glance, one might assume that ‘the man is oppressing the people
again’. However, one needs a few more bits of important information in order to get the whole
picture. The employee is actually a well-known fixture of UH Manoa who quietly hawks the
Communist Newspaper without harassing people. C.J. Jong even points out this fact in the article. The University in turns lets her do what she
wants without insulting her beliefs or letting narrow-minded people assault or degrade her. They
even let Revolution Books set up booths at the Campus Centre and let Not In Our Name hold
rallies and Festivals of Resistance at UH Manoa. I’ve talked with her from time to time and our
conversations went pretty well. It turned out that she had already met my friend and we talked
a little bit about him. She thought that he was pretty intelligent and asked a lot of good questions.
The other important piece of information that I got from my Web Media Professor is that the
reason why she was escorted off the campus; she got into an argument with a person and would
not back down even when common sense indicated that she should have. My Professor also said
that her approach to Rhetoric was more confrontation than open and inviting and resorted to name calling, something a good
speakers avoids if they wish to persuade people to consider their point of viewer. This means
that she was escorted off campus not because she was hawking an alternative newspaper but
because she was causing a disturbance on campus grounds. This shows that even if security may
not agree with their viewpoints, they put their jobs ahead of their politics.

So if examples like these show that we don’t live in a ‘fascist’ society as the host of an alternative
news show said, then why do many left-wingers believe that we’re sliding down the path to
fascism? Well, the left-wing group is just as much affected by their own subjective viewpoints as
the right-wing group. This means they filter events through their own personal beliefs and
interpret them as a good or bad sign based on their hopes and fears for society. Another reason is
that many left-wingers share the right-wingers’ belief that the world is going to hell, although
their definition of it is quite different from the right-wingers. Also, it’s really easy for people
living in a prosperous, First-World country to take their good fortune for granted and interprets
their leader’s mistakes as a sign that their country has jumped off the slippery slope to Fascism.
Still, their hypersensitivity is quite useful in revealing important details that more mainstream
groups may ignore due to lack of exposure or fear of retribution.

Ultimately, no matter how much I may disagree with them on one level; I can take a sense of
relief from them on another level because the fact that they can protest without running the risk
of getting killed or sent to a high security prison where they’re never heard from again shows
that our country is still the place were democracy is alive and well. Granted, America isn’t
perfect, thanks to the economy and all, but the fact that the flaws are on at least an equal footing
with the merits shows that we live in a normal society. And those left-wing protestors are a
straightforward example of it. Now all we need to do is find a way to encourage passionate
political debate that doesn’t degrade into mudslinging and name calling and we’ll be all set.