ArcaMax

It astounds me that people who defend the billionaire Koch Brothers' right to make unlimited political conations to conservative causes -- often while criticizing the billionaire George Soros for doing the same thing on the left -- would be shocked, shocked to learn that political actions often spark harsh reactions.

My second response is to remind everyone that the First Amendment only protects us all from being muzzled by government. It does not protect corporate officers from being held accountable to their stockholders, stakeholders, customers or valued employees.

Besides, the rising up of a protest does not mean that the targeted corporate officer has to resign. A few days after Eich's resignation, another protest movement erupted online against the appointment by Dropbox, another popular software company, of former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to its board of directors.

Objections listed on such protest sites as "Drop Dropbox" have nothing to do with her international business expertise and everything to do with torture, eavesdropping and other controversial policies of the George W. Bush administration.

But in sharp contrast to Eich's swift departure from Mozilla, Dropbox CEO Drew Houston stood by their woman. In a post on the Dropbox blog, Houston praised Rice as an asset to the company in pursuit of overseas markets and restated the company's commitment to privacy rights, "transparency and government surveillance reform."

Eich's case reveals a different kind of corporate damage to be controlled. It shows how much same-sex marriage and other gay rights causes have gone mainstream, especially in the new-century business cultures of Silicon Valley.

Yet it is important to note, Eich, by all accounts, is far from anti-gay. He supports the rest of the gay rights agenda, including civil unions. However, unlike former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and others who have reversed their previous objections to same-sex marriage, Eich still opposes it.

I disagree with Eich, yet his views are still too widely held to be equated with racism, as his harshest critics do. Same-sex marriage supporters would be wise, in my view, to avoid tactics that resemble a witch hunt. That's how otherwise worthy movements look like its own worst enemy.

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E-mail Clarence Page at cpage@tribune.com.

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