The State of the Union usually provides some interesting fodder for discussion, but this time, I’d rather talk about what happened around the speech instead. If you haven’t heard, Cindy Sheehan was arrested outside of the hall, along with Beverly Young, the wife of Republican Representative Bill Young. You can find the story here. Sheehan was wearing a shirt which protested the war. Ironically, Young was not. While this funny coincidence of circumstances is interesting in its own right, her acts of protest have resulted in some unfortunate limits to our abilities of free expression. Why aren’t we allowed to stage these types of protest at these sorts of times? It seems that to engage in protest, our society is wrapped up in forms and procedures instead of preserving our ability to speak. Somewhere along the line, we began privileging decorum over freedom of expression and protest. Even if you don’t agree with what Sheehan has to say, doesn’t she have the right to say it? The example in the news story seems to indicate a place where this system breaks down, where the police arrest people who are even suspect of protest. The police had to apologize for their actions, especially to Young, who was arrested by mistake. Is this indicative of a larger problem with our society and the limits of protest?