Letter: Claiming rights requires critical thinking

Dissatisfaction with election results led to protesters in Iowa City taking their 'show on the road” on Nov. 11 claiming 'freedom of speech.” Apparently both they and local police left their critical thinking at home, resulting in an almost 30-minute shutdown of Interstate 80 in the resulting confusion. The traffic tie-up could have been avoided if a key ingredient of legitimate protests had been present.

Every one of us - including the protesters - has the right to engage in free speech. No one, however, can demand a right to be heard! By intentionally obstructing traffic, (a clear violation of Iowa Code 723.4 (7)) the protesters were subjugating the natural, human rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness of truckers, sales people, commuters, travelers, emergency traffic and others to their will. That is totalitarianism and is antithetical to the freedom they were claiming to exercise. Enviably, we live in a free country which ironically is also why this behavior cannot be tolerated.

The reason lies in the definition of rights, which the leaders of this group either omitted from their pre-protest orientation or do not understand. Put simply, one cannot claim a right to any action or state of being if by exercising it, one interferes with anyone else's ability to exercise any of their rights. Laws are enacted and enforced in support of this concept. It is that tolerance for the rights of others and the acceptance of personal responsibility that makes limited government possible in our free nation.

Glenn Modracek

Cedar Rapids