There are few things that inherently come with being a red-blooded American. You can love cheeseburgers as much as Mount Rushmore. You can purchase a steak dinner across the street from the Ford dealership, and you say whatever you want to whomever you want with the frequency of breathing.

However, that First Amendment calls for a lot of abuse to the minds of the rational American.

Recently, a “political demonstration” of sorts was held in the King Memorial Commons. Bill Demsar, a philosophy graduate student, lay in a cage (jokingly referred to as the “freedom cage”) and spouted several political ideas most people would find confusing.

He and two other students supposedly represented the organization Republicans for the Advancement of Political Education, or R.A.P.E for short. In addition to obvious problems with the acronym, the three men were unclear as to what exactly the point of the exercise was.

I realize in this post-modern world of ours, anything can be called art. However, whether this was a protest or a performance piece, the group strategically avoided making a point. With heavy remorse, a glimpse of political awareness was dashed against the unforgiving cynicism of these individuals.

This isn’t a new occurrence. You can turn on Comedy Central every night and watch Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert make mockery of politics for an hour. A lot of people watch these shows – I do. Then again, I also read the news, vote and understand the difference between satire and wasted effort.

The political pundits of Comedy Central merely use their format for humor and a slight bit of questioning. The MLK Commons could be used as a format for protest, but Demsar didn’t accomplish that goal.

No wonder people who have real petitions to sign can’t get the time of day on the NIU campus. I’ve seen it happen. A flood of students will walk past any person with a pen and clipboard faster than a trip to Huskies Pizza.

Political identity, even political awareness, does not inherently call for a person to stand on a soap box and state something to the world. Actions like this mock the principle of the free speech. Abraham Lincoln has this famous quote attributed to his name: “Tis better to be silent and be thought a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt.”

That’s good advice for an American in the 19th century as well as the 21st. Take pride in your right to say what you want, but consider the consequences of opening your mouth.