Pushback: how turning the tables wins you the game

( – promoted by buhdydharma )

On the national Vets for Peace list, a gentleman sent out a notice that Washington DC was instituting random subway searches on it’s Metro Line. He sent out a plea for ways to discourage this behavior and hopefully end it, and specifically asked for advice from the people who travel on New York City public transit systems. I am still furious about the policy that went into effect on July 22, 2005 mandating that all travellers on MTA and LIRR transit would be subject to random search of their bags by police, and this was my response:

The ACLU pushed back very hard in NYC and I have not seen anyone searched or stopped in a long time. They instructed people to collect data on the police as part of the pushback: officer’s names, badge numbers, asking them what their probable cause was, exact data on what was searched, search location, were other people being stopped, and whether racial or religious profiling appeared to be taking place.

A lot can be accomplished when you turn the tables in this manner. It’s something best done in person, but sometimes it works online too.

Newsday’s objectivity these days is there, but spotty. Like the New York Times, spin-free professionalism can vary from reporter to reporter and from editor to editor. So when I saw a puff piece appear today that was almost entirely pro-McCain spin entitled “Many veterans on Long Island like their fellow vet McCain”, I wrote a brief note to the author of the story letting him know I was one who does not, and added:

And it would appear I am in good company.

I guess you didn’t see this. I’m making sure you do.

I then attached a copy of something Jim Staro had forwarded to the national Vets for Peace list: the endorsement of Obama by the non-partisan veteran’s support organization Veterans and Military Families for Progress.

The reporter replied saying he’d been getting great comments from all sorts of vets and that he might do another story, and asked me why I support Obama.

My reply was “Heehee, I think you need to!” with a smiley, and a comprehensive explanation of why I support Obama. But that only happened because I pushed back. This guy was clearly only providing one side of the story. The fallacious meme that “all veterans on Long Island support the Republican agenda/administration/candidate” is notoriously pushed by the media on Long Island which happens to have one of the highest populations of veterans in the country.

That public misperception needs to be corrected, and that wasn’t going to happen without pushback. My statement to the reporter, “I guess you didn’t see this. I’m making sure you do.” was to let him know that I didn’t appreciate his misinformation, and that while his readers might never see the other side of the story thanks to either himself or his editor, there certainly is one that THEY were going to have to see.

Pushback needs to happen. If a cop is unjustifiably invading your privacy, INVADE HIS. Show him how it feels to be scrutinized. Take his badge number. Take notes on what he’s doing. Give it right back – not in a manner that is discourteous, but simply brings home the point that what he’s doing is wrong.

If a reporter is spinning out propagandist claptrap instead of news, make sure HE is informed. Do his job for him – and AT him, if only to remind him that it’s a job that needs doing! You never know, he (or his editor) might see the light.

Pushback doesn’t always work. Some entities engaged in wrongdoing will remain obdurate and refuse to correct themselves. All the same, this sort of reaction to a wrongful action is something that needs to be done in a nonviolent manner – creating a path back to dialogue and better understanding. Pushback is NOT “turning the other cheek” – it very much is a form of retaliation, but if it is done with compassion in the mix, you create an opportunity, a chance for the other person to realize they’re doing something wrong and to correct it.

Providing that chance is in itself an act of compassion. Yes, it places you within range of the wrongdoer. It can place you at risk for further harm or loss. But it is a chance one has to take in order to right the wrongs one sees in a peaceful and successful manner.