Harry Taylor: Freedom of Speech

Harry Taylor today fulfilled his civic duty simply by sharing his displeasure with OUR public servant, president Bush. Unfortunately, there are still many Americans that continue to betray their civic responsibilities by merely serving as cheerleaders and enablers to an administration and a party that have repeatedly lied to us, even as they failed hundreds of thousands of our fellow Americans in NOLA, and elsewhere; not to mention their utter failure at governing and managing our country — lest we forget that in 2001, when Bush came into office, our country was enjoying record surpluses and, only five short years later, Bush and crew have amassed record deficits.

Harry Taylor stood before our public servant and told him:

I feel like, despite your rhetoric, that compassion and common sense have been left far behind during your administration.

However, as Harry Taylor was fulfilling his civic duty, other citizens, more docile and less concerned with their own responsibilities to our country, decided to boo a man that so nobly illustrated one of the four essential freedoms beautifully articulated by FDR; and so movingly depicted by Norman Rockwell.

This image was inspired by a simple post I found over at DailyKos.com, which I thought was very compelling. I’m sure that unwittingly, Harry Taylor inspired many, see here and here and here. You can also check out a clip of the exchange here, courtesy of ThinkProgress.com.

Update:

• There’s now a Thank You Harry site here.
• This person decided to track down Harry Taylor to thank him, and they got to chat.
• Harry Taylor appeared on CNN the morning after his "Freedom of Speech" moment.