The exercise of freedom requires citizens to have a high level of responsibility and civility, and failure to observe these basic principles will end up eroding the democratic climate. Many Dominicans confuse their legitimate right to protest with the supposed right to disrespect the law, disregard authority, and use violence to channel concerns or defend their particular or group interests. The arrogance of these groups reaches the extreme of claiming from others the endorsement of their actions as sheep and, worse still, of taking over the power to summarily judge them.
Under any pretext, the trade unions and professional associations fail in their obligation by leaving those who have the duty to serve without service, to storm the streets in demands of all kinds, ironically often to the detriment of the scope of their own claims and in ignorance almost always of the rights of others. There have been very emblematic cases of this lack of citizen responsibility. For example, those that occurred in tourist areas. On repeated occasions, the complaints have come to create intimidating environments in these places, even among the tourists themselves, with a very negative impact for the sector and especially for those who live and benefit from the activity, among whom, paradoxically, the protesters.
This deplorable reality is the result of the poor level of civility resulting from the widespread belief that citizen claims are not subject to any limits, which is false even in cases where the motivation is inspired by a just and humanitarian cause. Protesting is a right, but doing so demands a thorough knowledge of the limitations that every organized society establishes for the sake of civilized coexistence. Nations, like individuals, often fall into the pits they dig.
