The right to demonstrate
Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and a myriad of other Middle Eastern countries populations are in the streets demanding change. Hooray our government says. The President, Secretary of State, and press officers stating we are on the side of the demonstrators, and the dictators whom we were on the side of, if it was to our benefit, last week, should mellow out and quit beating, shooting and arresting people.
Do any of you boomers remember the Steven Stills song “For what it’s worth? ... there’s a man with a gun over there…” Or “four dead in Ohio”. From 1968, “The whole world is watching”. In Berkeley, May 1969, forty sheriffs stood shoulder to shoulder and leveled shotguns at a crowd of unarmed demonstrators reminiscent of civil war photos only the demonstrators were not standing shoulder to shoulder pointing shotguns back at them, and opened fire killing one man, James Rector, wounding hundreds of others, including myself, a photographer for a local newspaper, filling hospitals and clinics with cracked skulls and filling the Alameda County jail, “Santa Rita,” a former Japanese internment camp, to twice its capacity, and all over the park, over a freakin’ park. No, I haven’t forgotten the civil rights marches. I only saw on TV, dogs and fire hoses. I was young, but I saw.
Our pundits stand up self-righteously and say others shouldn’t do those violent things. Well, nobody should do those things, but they get done, and by us, too. You may say, well, that was all in the past, and we learned and are better for it now. The police that never did have any accountability for their actions before not only haven’t changed but also have gotten better (or worse, 9/11) depending on how you look at it.
Right here in bucolic Whitefish, a person can be hauled from his or her home or car without provocation or a warrant, tazered, beaten and thrown into county jail, charges to be figured out later. We only have a few officers, what if there were 10,000 or more, including National Guard or maybe even the army?
What do you think would happen if we gathered 500,000 demonstrators using all the technology at our disposal in the Washington Mall and said we are not leaving until the legislators quit their partisan bickering and get something done to bring back our jobs from Mexico and China? First, they would try and talk us to death.
“For talk is evil: It is light to raise up quite easily, but is difficult to bear, and hard to put down. No talk is ever entirely gotten rid of, once many people talk it up: It too, is some God.” (Hesiod, from “Cleopatra a Life,” by Nancy Schiff)
Every word out of Mitch McConnell’s mouth prior to the election was an unpatriotic bash on the president. He actually stated that the goal of the Republican Party was to make sure President Obama is a one-time president, and how he adds sarcasm every time he utters the word president or democrat. Hypothetically speaking, let’s say we are wholly sick of him and want him to shut up, get along with the other children, or just sit in the corner.
So we gather in the Washington Mall and demand action or we won’t move. Even get port-a-potties, food and medical logistics. A veritable Woodstock, maybe even music without a permit. What happens when we don’t move, we yell and sing and yell some more and paint banners and partisan politics stands pat, entrenched, our jobs are still out-sourced, and we can’t shut up ol’ Mitch? It is a stalemate and it goes on.
Eventually, how long I can only guess, the government will have to put an end to this nonsense and bring in the famously brutal, D.C. police. Some idiot throws a bottle or a rock, and we will look just like one of those countries on the news.
Things are calm right now, disgruntled but calm. Small gatherings are happening in Wisconsin and Ohio, but what if our hunger, joblessness and consequent homelessness get the best of us and we demand change instead of voting in some other talker.
How far away is this possible scenario? Who knows? But remember, you boomers are the folk group, The Kingston Trio? They had a hit song, “The MTA”; it started with “this could happen to you”.
R. Michael Jentile lives in Whitefish.