It is unbelievable to me that so many Americans, especially RPCV's, seem to protest their own right to protest. I suppose if you keep on ignoring your rights they will disappear anyway.

The fact is that when we organized this protest, we did not identify ourselves to the media as Peace Corps volunteers. We also were in touch with a Dominican group who was interested in joining the protest. There is no rule in the Peace Corps guidelines against protesting your own government's policies (only those of host countries). Someone said that as a government employee you couldn't protest your employer. That might be so in China, but as American's we have that freedom as long as we are not on duty or identifying ourselves as a representative of that agency, which we were not going to do. In the Nation article, my opinion was somewhat cut down to say we wanted to show Dominicans that we did not approve with our country's policies, but ultimately the goal was to express our discontent to our embassy. It is also amazing to be told that we did not have the right to protest because PC is a non-political organization. My wife worked for the Secretary of Education, who also was the Vice President of the Dominican Republic. By the way she is with the White Party. She also was posted on the front page in the center of our group when we swore in, promoting her information technology program. Also, isn't the director of Peace Corps appointed by our president and approved by congress (i.e. POLITICALLY appointed). So, what part of PC isn't political? Finally, this hogwash about the U.S.A. being the only place where we are guaranteed our freedoms is maddening. We were protected more under Dominican laws than those of our own "free" country. We currently enjoy less freedom of expression than many nations on earth. After all, what is controversial in carrying a sign that says "An eye for an eye, and the whole world will go blind." I suppose the current administration is not sympathetic to Hindu causes either.

The only mistake I made in this whole process was not marching with Kauffman. I was worried about my future employment opportunities while he thought only of the cause. If I could change one thing about my 2-year service it would be that 15 minutes. Oh well, it never helps to dwell on the past, though it might help for some people to review it.

We don't have the rights we have today because of some all too powerful military and Commander in Chief telling other armies to "Bring it on". We enjoy our rights because some liberal thinkers decided to fight the oppressing powers. Today some people trivialize acts of protest, but nonetheless these acts are the only hope our country has right now. The damned election booths don't seem to be working. If an act as simple as dumping crates of tea off a boat has the power to change history, I would like to think that we still have some power to change things through our civil disobedience. As I was sitting in an Administrator's office after our protest had been squashed, listening to yet another justification of why we couldn't do this and that, I saw an all powerful picture hanging on his wall, and his words disintegrated into nothing. The picture was of that Chinese student who had the gall to place his body in front of an oncoming row of tanks on that fateful day in Tienamen Square. I'm sure that some idiot in the crowd on that day said, "He can't do that, doesn't he know that is against the rules."
It is unbelievable to me that so many Americans, especially RPCV's, seem to protest their own right to protest. I suppose if you keep on ignoring your rights they will disappear anyway.

The fact is that when we organized this protest, we did not identify ourselves to the media as Peace Corps volunteers. We also were in touch with a Dominican group who was interested in joining the protest. There is no rule in the Peace Corps guidelines against protesting your own government's policies (only those of host countries). Someone said that as a government employee you couldn't protest your employer. That might be so in China, but as American's we have that freedom as long as we are not on duty or identifying ourselves as a representative of that agency, which we were not going to do. In the Nation article, my opinion was somewhat cut down to say we wanted to show Dominicans that we did not approve with our country's policies, but ultimately the goal was to express our discontent to our embassy. It is also amazing to be told that we did not have the right to protest because PC is a non-political organization. My wife worked for the Secretary of Education, who also was the Vice President of the Dominican Republic. By the way she is with the White Party. She also was posted on the front page in the center of our group when we swore in, promoting her information technology program. Also, isn't the director of Peace Corps appointed by our president and approved by congress (i.e. POLITICALLY appointed). So, what part of PC isn't political? Finally, this hogwash about the U.S.A. being the only place where we are guaranteed our freedoms is maddening. We were protected more under Dominican laws than those of our own "free" country. We currently enjoy less freedom of expression than many nations on earth. After all, what is controversial in carrying a sign that says "An eye for an eye, and the whole world will go blind." I suppose the current administration is not sympathetic to Hindu causes either.

The only mistake I made in this whole process was not marching with Kauffman. I was worried about my future employment opportunities while he thought only of the cause. If I could change one thing about my 2-year service it would be that 15 minutes. Oh well, it never helps to dwell on the past, though it might help for some people to review it.

We don't have the rights we have today because of some all too powerful military and Commander in Chief telling other armies to "Bring it on". We enjoy our rights because some liberal thinkers decided to fight the oppressing powers. Today some people trivialize acts of protest, but nonetheless these acts are the only hope our country has right now. The damned election booths don't seem to be working. If an act as simple as dumping crates of tea off a boat has the power to change history, I would like to think that we still have some power to change things through our civil disobedience. As I was sitting in an Administrator's office after our protest had been squashed, listening to yet another justification of why we couldn't do this and that, I saw an all powerful picture hanging on his wall, and his words disintegrated into nothing. The picture was of that Chinese student who had the gall to place his body in front of an oncoming row of tanks on that fateful day in Tienamen Square. I'm sure that some idiot in the crowd on that day said, "He can't do that, doesn't he know that is against the rules."