Destroying property and getting in the way of other people’s lives isn’t protest

What, exactly, is your motivation here? That’s not a shot, it’s not sarcasm, and it’s not “you owe me an explanation.” I’m asking sincerely because I sincerely do not understand.

I was raised to think the better of people, and since I was also taught that core values aren’t selective or situational, I’m holding on to that. If I disagree with you on an issue – hell, even if I can conclusively prove you’re wrong – I WANT to believe your heart is in the right place. I want to believe you’ve given fair consideration to all the angles and picked the one you believe leads to a better world for all of us. Used to be, I usually didn’t have to scratch too deep to find that was true. And even if I don’t like what you’re saying, I gotta respect that, and I gotta respect you standing up for it.

But I’ve been seeing some real curve balls over the last decade or so. Stances I can’t understand, battles that don’t make sense. And if I can’t find the honor in your position, I’m not going to assume there’s none there, I’m going to ask. Because I really want to believe in you.

So what exactly do you think you’re accomplishing by taking over and trashing property that doesn’t belong to you? What are you getting out of denying people use of libraries and classrooms and public roads? Do you think that’s how you get people to reconsider their own positions? When you shut a campus down for days, do you think screeching “nazi!” at anyone who says that’s unfair to the other students is how you sway people over to your side? If so, you really prob’ly ought to give your entire strategy a re-think.

Because here’s what it looks like to me: a whole bunch of militant dilettantes who’ve led such sheltered and privileged lives that it never even occurred to them that there would be consequences for their behavior, led by a few people who just want to watch the world burn. Witness the mass scramble out of buildings when it became obvious and inevitable that the police would be going in and making arrests. Oh I know you counted on the police being THERE; that is part of the show, after all. But it must’ve been a real buzzkill to realize the city administration wasn’t going to order them to stand down. Where’s the fun in bravely standing up to authority when authority isn’t being ordered to stand there and take it?

All of the “occupying” we’ve been seeing over the last several years has been done in cities and on campuses that have traditionally allowed, even encouraged, that. And it looks like even THOSE places are finally fed up with it. That’s bad news for the movement.

Listen, it’s your birthright to protest absolutely anything you want. I won’t march alongside you on that, but I WILL stand up for your right to do it. Destroying property and getting in the way of other people’s lives isn’t protest, it’s criminal. And it’s long past time it started being treated as such. Jail is a helluva eye opener, kids. And in my personal opinion, each person’s time should be directly tied to their ability to explain the picket sign they carried.

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Bama has been a rodeo cowboy, a professional stuntman, and, for 39 years and counting, a bouncer at various biker bars and redneck rat cage juke joints through the Deep South. He makes cool stuff as Crimson Tied Paragear, using knots his Army Ranger Scoutmaster taught him at Boy Scout summer camp deep in the Okinawan boonies back in 1972.

As the Voice of the Veteran Community, The Havok Journal seeks to publish a variety of perspectives on a number of sensitive subjects. Unless specifically noted otherwise, nothing we publish is an official point of view of The Havok Journal or any part of the U.S. government.