Monday, August 23, 2010

Pamela Geller has an opinion.

Pamela Geller is upset that someone has held a rally against the Ground Zero mosque. Robert Spencer writes at Jihad Watch of the rally:

For the record, neither Pamela Geller nor I were at this clearly poorly organized and ill-conceived protest yesterday. Neither of us had anything to do with organizing it or planning it in any way. Geller declares:"... I have no idea what this rally is. I have no idea who these people are. I have no idea who organized this rally. Clearly, whoever organized this was careless, unprepared, shooting from the hip and harmful to the cause of freedom and compassion. I wasn't even in the state, nor did I know anything about this half-assed effort.

http://www.jihadwatch.org/2010/08/all-ground-zero-mosque-foes-look-alike-max-blumenthal-attacks-pamela-geller-for-protest-she-had-noth.html

That's just fine. If Geller wants to distance herself from a rally she had nothing to do with, it's right and proper that she do so in public. She is a private individual with a right to protect herself from false accusations of being associated with people she is not associated with. Beyond that, who cares what Pamela Geller thinks? Her friends do. Rightly so. Others? I don't think anyone cares what she says. Rightly so.

Geller writes above:

I have no idea what this rally is. I have no idea who these people are. I have no idea who organized this rally. Clearly, whoever organized this was careless, unprepared, shooting from the hip and harmful to the cause of freedom and compassion.

I'm sure that most Americans have no idea who Pamela Geller is, and if they did, I'm sure most would see her as yet one more America with an opinion with just as much right to express it as any other. Beyond that, unless people have some private concern for Geller's opinions, all she has is opinion, good or bad, but not anything anyone has to pay attention to just because her name is Pamela Geller.

I too have no idea what this rally is. So what? If people want to have a rally, they'll have a rally. If Geller thinks it makes her look bad, that's entirely up to her to feel about it as she will, and for her friends to sympathise with her if they care to. If those who organised this rally are indeed "careless, unprepared, shooting from the hip, and cetera, that's their right, as it's Geller's right to express her opinion of them and for others to decide as they will. The point is, Geller in not anyone any more important here than anyone else. Others might well not be well-prepared, and such is the way of it. Geller can say what she likes. So can others. It all comes to much the same thing.

The hack cited at the link above is out of line. He's a different story.

But to criticise "the masses" for having a rally Geller doesn't approve of is not interesting to anyone else but her and her friends. If there are a million rallies, and if Geller disapproves of all of them, Geller's disapproval is not important. What is important is that there be rallies of citizens, whether Geller likes them or not, and for whatever reason. Geller is not responsible for other people's rallies, and they are not responsible for the things she does. She is very likely thankful for that.

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