To go or not to go

I thought I had an easy solution.

What was the problem, you ask, that needed a solution? To go or not to go. Should I go to the big rally tonight or not. There are reasons for and against. I will get to that in a moment.

So, I thought I had nothing to worry about. I was supposed to be down south this evening near Arad. My brother is in the army and he is on an army base outside of Arad. His base is having Parent's Visiting Day this afternoon and I was going to go, because his (our) parents live in the United States and could not make it to the base.

He called me up this morning and said not to come. All the chayalim bodedim (lone soldiers) are being moved off the base to somewhere else (an undisclosed location). My guess is so they will not feel bad, and homesick, when they see everyone else's parents show up while theirs do not. So anyway, I have nothing to go for.

While that saved me the 2 hour drive and the hassle, even though I was looking forward to it, it created this other dilemma for me.

To go or not to go.

On the one hand, I believe Olmert needs to resign, and that is the purpose of the protest rally tonight. To let Olmert know the people want him to resign. I should join in.

On the other hand, it is probably a waste of time because politicians stopped paying attention to rallies a long time ago.

I have not found anybody who has said they are going. Some people say they are not going either because it is a waste of time, or for another reason. That is, they are concerned that it will look like an "Orange" event. They think that if too many right-wing protesters are there, it will look like a settler rally, similar to the Gush Katif rallies, and the whole public will turn against it, along with even greater chances of the politicians ignoring it. So they say it is better to not go and let it have the flavor of a more general, non-descript crowd.

Many people say they do not know if they will go or not. They will decide at the last minute.

Jameel has a similar dilemma

It is difficult to find the time to waste, and I do believe it will be a waste of time. Going to the rally means I will probably miss all of or at least most of my shiur tonight. it means not having the dinner time with the family. It means going shopping in the morning with the crowds instead of tonight.

I have plenty of reasons not to go, to consider it inconvenient.

But on the other hand, even if they ignore the public's outcry, we have to do our share. We cannot become complacent just because of them. that is what Olmert wants. He wants us to not show up. It means he will have less pressure. Sure, he might (probably) ignore us anyway, but it is the right thing to do.

After writing this little rant, I think I am going to go. I have to do my job and say what I believe in. If he ignores our call, we will have to find another way. But that does not relieve me of my obligation now.