The G20 protests

By Daniel Clements April 1, 2009

As I was watching Fox and Friends this morning on the Fox News channel I heard Gretchen and Brian discussing the protests at the G20 summit and they described all the protesters as Anarchist. Now most of the time the hosts of Fox and Friends are very careful when they report on a story, but this time when reporting about the G20 summit they accused all of the protesters of being anarchist.

I host a radio show and try never to make a blanket statement. I always try to investigate and research a subject before I report on it. I went on Google to find out what groups were protesting the G20 summit. In my research I did find some groups that were there to cause trouble. But there were some groups there that have legitimate grievances to air during the protest. To say that every one there protesting was there to cause trouble is not only false but an outright lie.

I believe it is a fundamental right of people everywhere to protest what their governments are doing in their name, especially when those governments infringe on people’s rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. I believe that civil protests are another form of redress of grievances by the people. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, are God given rights that cannot be arbitrarily taken away from people by their governments. People give up these rights and allow their governments to take them a way, when they sit idly by and suffer wrongs by their governments.

These protests at the G20 summit are a symptom of a larger problem. Some of the protesters targeted the bank of England because it is part of the world banking system. The world banking system is in large part Responsible for the global economic meltdown. And make no mistake, the Federal Reserve here in America is part of the world banking system and is at the top of the list of those responsible for the economic crisis here in America. The Federal Reserve is a private institution and is not accountable to We the People, and is resisting every effort by the people to be held accountable for any of its actions.

The larger problem I spoke of earlier is that the free market system is not allowed to operate on its own. Governments all over the world try to control things they do not understand. In the free market system individuals and groups of individuals determine how best to go about interacting with each other during the course of living out their lives. Governments are instituted among men to enforce contracts between individuals and to ensure that the playing field is level for all participants. Free markets can only exist where people have freedom and liberty.

The problem that faces us today is that governments all over the world are trying to control the free market system. The very nature of the free market system cannot be controlled, because people who participate in the free market system will always do what’s in their best interest despite what governments may want them to do. History is littered with the dead corpses of failed government attempts to control the free market system. In the end the free market will always win out no matter how much the government would like to control it, because again people will always do what is in their best interest.

I will acknowledge that some of the protesters at the G20 summit have no business being there. If all you want to do at the G20 summit is cause trouble then you should just stay home. Protesters who cause trouble at protests do more harm than good, because their message gets lost in all the excitement and all people remember about a group that causes trouble is the trouble they cause.

But getting back to my original point, if you’re going to report a story, any story, you need to get your facts straight and correct from the beginning and quit using blanket statements when describing the events or people. I like Gretchen and Brian and will continue to watch Fox and Friends on the Fox News channel, but I cannot and will not allow falsehoods to go unchecked or unchallenged. So please Gretchen and Brian in the future to your research and stop using blanket statements.

Dan Clements is a member of the Constitution Party and the host of BACK TO BASIC a Christian/political internet talk show. You can listen to Dan live from 10am-12 noon EST. M-F at www.blogtalkradio.com/dan-clements and www.constitutionalwarrior.com
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