While I listened to people complaining about these protests, I kept thinking of those people back in when I was in 5th grade thinking/saying "why couldn't she just move to the back of the damn bus" and later "what's the point of sitting at a lunch counter when it's against the rules." I'm pretty sure there were folks who REALLY needed to get across the Edmund Pettus Bridge one Sunday.
Civil disobedience has been around most of my life. One tenet of it is that one accepts being arrested for the disruption, not to mention vilified. The vilification right now is that by participating one is widely labeled pro-Hamas and antisemitic, when only a minority actually thinks Hamas was RIGHT to do what it did. (That is distinguishable from understanding the conditions that led to it; it is and has been the method of Hamas that went over the line). The protest is far more against the reaction that October 7 unleashed on so many innocents besides the victims of the terrorist attack.
I crowded many a street during Vietnam. I'm far too creaky to occupy a bridge nowadays. I can barely get to the end of the block. But I can recognize that the public still needs reminding of ongoing horrors in this age of easy distraction.
In the PNW I’ve been a part of both kinds of protest to protect our forests. We never get everything we want, but we do raise awareness and let our leaders know where we stand. Most people don’t want to see Gazans suffer. But we need to be reminded, since MSM feeds a steady diet of distractions.
I think Trump would help Netanyahu instead of demanding restraint.
While I listened to people complaining about these protests, I kept thinking of those people back in when I was in 5th grade thinking/saying "why couldn't she just move to the back of the damn bus" and later "what's the point of sitting at a lunch counter when it's against the rules." I'm pretty sure there were folks who REALLY needed to get across the Edmund Pettus Bridge one Sunday.
Civil disobedience has been around most of my life. One tenet of it is that one accepts being arrested for the disruption, not to mention vilified. The vilification right now is that by participating one is widely labeled pro-Hamas and antisemitic, when only a minority actually thinks Hamas was RIGHT to do what it did. (That is distinguishable from understanding the conditions that led to it; it is and has been the method of Hamas that went over the line). The protest is far more against the reaction that October 7 unleashed on so many innocents besides the victims of the terrorist attack.
I crowded many a street during Vietnam. I'm far too creaky to occupy a bridge nowadays. I can barely get to the end of the block. But I can recognize that the public still needs reminding of ongoing horrors in this age of easy distraction.
In the PNW I’ve been a part of both kinds of protest to protect our forests. We never get everything we want, but we do raise awareness and let our leaders know where we stand. Most people don’t want to see Gazans suffer. But we need to be reminded, since MSM feeds a steady diet of distractions.
I think Trump would help Netanyahu instead of demanding restraint.
Well said. Nice articulation of the complementary roles.