The shoe as politics

January 7, 6:48 PMDallas Libertarian ExaminerGarry Reed

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Shoe shower on Downing Street (AP Photo/Kirsty
Wigglesworth)

What is it about shoes that make them international icons? Women collect them, sometimes by the hundreds, athletes endorse them, usually for millions, and at least one person attempted intimate contact with them by toe-tapping in a Twin Cities terminal toilet.

But now the common shoe has become politicized.

In early January several thousand demonstrators protesting Israel's bombardment and invasion of Gaza marched past the Prime Minister's Downing Street residence in London, and several hundred of them threw shoes at the dwelling's gate.

This was, of course, a direct manifestation of the shoe chucking as political protest made popular recently by an Iraqi journalist who unshod himself and flung his personal footwear at the face of President Bush during a photo op in Baghdad.

He became enormously popular throughout Muslimland and, apparently, well beyond, as the London shoe showers have shown.

At this point one might expect Nike to abandon their signature “Just do it” line and switch to “Just throw it.”

But there’s a dark side to the shoe as an implement of protest. In December 2001, a man was seen attempting to ignite the inner tongue of his sneaker with a match. He was overpowered by flight crew and passengers and restrained until the plane could land. This of course was the infamous Richard Reid, known to us forever as the Shoe Bomber.

Thankfully, Reid failed to blow a hole in his sole and, worse, in the aircraft. But, again thanks to Reid, everyone in America gets to stand sock-footed in airport TSA lines while their footwear gets x-rayed for explosives. Let’s be thankful he didn’t have a bomb in his Jockey shorts.

Historically, the most notorious shoe protest occurred during the Cold War era. This was The Great United Nations Shoe Pounding of 1960. Nikita Khrushchev, Premier of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, was attending the proceedings of the East River Debating Society when he took umbrage with the goings-on. The Leader of the Communist Empire pulled off his Worker’s Paradise foot covering and began profusely pounding the podium. Long, loud and lustily. Bringing deliberations to a standstill. Many older Americans may recall the grainy black and white footage of the footwear pounding by Comrade Khrushchev gracing their television screens on the six o'clock news.

At the other end of the “shoe as political statement” spectrum, libertarian Will Buchanan let his shoes do the talking as well as the walking. In the voluntary, non-coercive course of events he also answered the question of how many shoes it takes to walk across the U.S. from Pacific waters to Atlantic surf. Buchanan spent 222 days of 2008 making his 3200-mile Walk for Liberty on behalf of his two favorite causes, The Free State Project which seeks to move 20,000 freedom-loving folks to the Granite State where they will constitute a voting bloc intent on minimizing government and maximizing freedom, and Ron Paul's Campaign for Liberty which seeks more like 20 million freedom-loving folks intent on pulling off the minimizing-maximizing trick on a national scale.

(The answer to the shoe question is seven.)

There are doubtless more shoe shenanigans to come, and past feats of footwear furor have likely escaped attention in this commentary. If the latter is true, feel free to send in your favorite footwear features.

Just remember: if the shoe fits, wear it. If you have a fit, fling it.