Save Your Breath for The Hippies

So I'm watching John McCain speak to a NALEO gathering this morning (that's right- I'm a nerd) and just as he's about to say even undocumented Latin@s are his brothers and sisters, some yahoo holding a sign that reads "McCain=Guerra" gets up and yells, "Your silence is consent to war crimes!" en inglés y español.

Really? Consent? C'mon, that's a bit outrageous isn't it? Consent requires some sort of active assent or approval. Maybe my silence says "I just don't care." Isn't that possible? Maybe my silence is apathy to war crimes.

If someone's going to interrupt a televised event, a live televised event, I should add, shouldn't they make sure their accusations are accurate? And if I don't care, then why bother saying anything to me? I don't care, so your saying anything just makes you look foolish. It would be like you exerting energy to tell me TBS is running a 12 hour marathon of the Bill Engvall Show this weekend? It means nothing to me.

Or maybe my silence is contentment. Maybe the issue of whether we as a nation have committed war crimes would require some type of research and discernment on my part, and probably some discomfort too. None of that sounds like something I'd like to bear, especially if I'm presently happy and comfortable. So my silence is really just an expression of inertia. So you're attempt to accuse me of something really just demonstrates that you're a jerk. My goodness, why would you want to make someone unhappy?

It's very presumptuous to assume you know why I am silent in the face of war crimes.