BRIEF THOUGHTS ON THE AMERICAN WAY
09/12/14 15:42 Filed in: Society
A brief perspective on civil protests and their sometimes controversial roots in American patriotism.
Funny thing about "The American way.” It was initiated by a mob, protesting among other things the institutionalized repression of social justice, the vast disparity between the rich and the poor, an inequity of representation within the seat of power, and unfair stop, search, and seizure procedures enacted by a belligerent bullying police force in which they again, had little to no representation. (Never mind of course, the stark irony that the majority of them were at the very least passive, if not voracious supporters of that old bastion of institutionalized repression and inequality we call Slavery.) The American Way.
How did THEY demonstrate their protest? Well I recall on one occasion, led by a band of instigators, clerics, and community organizers who made their living by always showing up and speaking out on issues of liberty and perceived injustices that only affected persons of their own race, they incited the populace to riot and went out after dark to loot and vandalize a large merchant ship in Boston Harbor. This was no peaceful protest gone sour, this was willful, premeditated lawlessness intentionally contrived to “shut it down” (and to ultimately be blamed on another race of people thought to be by nature wild and reckless and prone to such acts). The American Way.
The thing that really set it off though was when social media puppets like Paul Revere helped organize a demonstration march of ARMED protesters that predictably turned violent with the authorities on Lexington Green that brisk spring morning on April 19, 1775 and ignited a revolution… The American Way.
Is this a call to, or an endorsement of armed protest against the injustices and ills of society excusing or justifying such as evidence of merely walking in the steps of “our” American patriot forefathers? Certainly it is not. My thoughts are just an effort to keep things in historical perspective and to keep the conversations from being shifted outside of legitimate context and refocused on the issues that the voices of protest have rallied to.
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How did THEY demonstrate their protest? Well I recall on one occasion, led by a band of instigators, clerics, and community organizers who made their living by always showing up and speaking out on issues of liberty and perceived injustices that only affected persons of their own race, they incited the populace to riot and went out after dark to loot and vandalize a large merchant ship in Boston Harbor. This was no peaceful protest gone sour, this was willful, premeditated lawlessness intentionally contrived to “shut it down” (and to ultimately be blamed on another race of people thought to be by nature wild and reckless and prone to such acts). The American Way.
The thing that really set it off though was when social media puppets like Paul Revere helped organize a demonstration march of ARMED protesters that predictably turned violent with the authorities on Lexington Green that brisk spring morning on April 19, 1775 and ignited a revolution… The American Way.
Is this a call to, or an endorsement of armed protest against the injustices and ills of society excusing or justifying such as evidence of merely walking in the steps of “our” American patriot forefathers? Certainly it is not. My thoughts are just an effort to keep things in historical perspective and to keep the conversations from being shifted outside of legitimate context and refocused on the issues that the voices of protest have rallied to.
-cap
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