Anyone who has been
following the Congressional hearings in the run-up to what I’m assuming is
going to be a military strike on Syria will be familiar with the “bloody hands
protest”: that’s where members of Code Pink sit in the background of the news
camera shots of Secretary of State Kerry and hold up their hands, which have
red paint on their palms to simulate blood on their hands. This is a
wonderfully effective protest, in my opinion. Once you see that red hand, you
immediately get the idea of America getting blood on her hands, and it makes
you think about the human toll of such military action, and how such action can
have unexpected consequences and outcomes, easily pulling a nation into an
unwanted war that goes on and on and on.
Well, this great protest
idea from Code Pink works so well, it made me think it could be used for other
issues as well. Like, for example, the next time Congress holds hearings about
Internet pornography, threatening to regulate it, young men could show up with hair glued to their palms, and whenever the news cameras film someone
testifying, these stalwart young gentlemen could hold up their hairy palms in
protest.
