Silence is golden – in movie theaters and during lectures. Most other times, it’s a hindrance,… Silence is golden – in movie theaters and during lectures. Most other times, it’s a hindrance, an obstacle to the crucial exchange of ideas.

Recently, it seems no one is talking or listening. Dialogue is being quashed the world over and ideas are being suppressed and ignored.

On the home front, President George W. Bush dismissively acknowledged this weekend’s massive worldwide anti-war protests.

Regarding the sheer numbers of protesters, he said, “Size of protest, it’s like deciding, ‘well, I’m going to decide policy based on a focus group.'”

The “focus group” in question is millions of people who have no other way to express their disagreement with the possibility of bloody conflict. Freedom of speech is a wonderful thing – when it isn’t ignored.

In his State of the Union address, Bush surprised many with his proposed $15 billion worldwide AIDS relief package. Now, he’s pulled a bait-and-switch by placing heavy conditions on the money. He’s reinstated Ronald Reagan’s 1984 “Mexico City” policy, repealed by Bill Clinton in 1993, that states no U.S. money can be given to any organization which supports abortion through counseling, lobbying or direct services, even if they don’t use U.S. money for these activities.

That makes it impossible for clinics in the most impoverished nations to see any of the relief package – most of these places are too poor to open a separate facility for abortion services. It’s these poorest nations that need AIDS relief most.

Regardless of Bush’s personal stance, abortion is legal in the United States. To impose restrictions on relief funding that aren’t concurrent with even our own laws amounts to making policy abroad – policy that even we don’t abide by. In this case, Bush isn’t listening to the laws of his own land.

In Dearborn, Mich., a 16-year-old high school student was silenced Wednesday when he was given the choice of going home or removing a T-shirt that bore a picture of Bush and the words, “International Terrorist.” He wore the shirt to express his views against the war while he gave a compare-and-contrast presentation on Bush and Saddam Hussein.

Not to be outdone, French president Jacques Chirac attempted to silence almost half a continent Tuesday when he sharply criticized Eastern European nations who signed a letter backing the U.S. position on war, implying their chances of making it into the European Union would be compromised.

“They missed a good opportunity to keep quiet,” he said.

Keeping quiet in these turbulent times seems like just what the world needs less of.