Down the Rabbit Hole: CD is the Greatest Engine for Change

[Warph]

Okay.... I'm sitting here munching my 1/2lb. cheesy bean and rice burrito and watching the news on the tube and I see this group of hispanic (notice I said 'hispanic' and not 'mexican'.... which doesn't mean shit) illegals marching down Camelback street in Phoenix protesting their asinine legal right to be here in this country illegally.  Legal right???  Huh??.... did I hear that right??  Am I having a senior moment here??  Holy tamale!  I guess anyone can protest anything they want, right or wrong!  Thank heavens Sheriff Joe is starting to take a bite out of their ass.

Currently the ACLU is upset because Arabs and Muslims are being unfairly profiled.  Unfairly?  You always hear that the majority of Muslims and Arabs are law-abiding.  Hey, the majority of any group is law-abiding.  But you don't leave your front door wide open at night just because the odds are in your favor.  Sheriff Joe needs to take a bite out of their ass, too.

So this put me to thinking....  (eh... this could be dangerous, people... I can see the comments now),  I started to think how the act of Civil Disobedience (alias CD)  deeply woven into the fibers of our nation.  From the Boston Tea Party to the fight over your God given right to party, our country has a proud history of CD.  Actually It has been a part of American history ever since the aforementioned plucky band of American colonists refused to pay a tax on tea, thereby paving the way for a free, democratic nation that does not tax tea... except, of course, for a local sales tax paid by the purchaser, an income tax paid by the seller, and corporate taxes paid by the manufacturer... CD is the greatest engine for change the world has ever known!  However, all that today's so-called CD seems to be protesting is boredom and guilt over having well-off parents, while killing time between Bono concerts.

Throwing a chair through the window of Starbucks because you disapprove of their treatment of coffee pickers in South America is juvenile.  Throwing a chair through the window of Starbucks because you asked for a grande latte, extra hot and they gave you a venti half-caf caramel macchiato with a soy chaser on the side..... well then, that's just basic 'Common Sense' and I know Thomas Paine would agree.

I guess you know there are people who refuse to pay their federal income taxes because they don't want their money going towards building weapons of mass destruction?  Now, while I applaud these citizens for their dedication to their ideals and for having the courage to act on their personal conscience, I also offer them one word of advice: MOVE!  It's a big world out there, Wesley.  If you don't feel like paying the cover charge at Club America, pack up your Birkenstocks and shades and find yourself another place to groove.

I guess my way of thinking is that many participate in acts of CD because it gives them an instant community of like-minded brethren who keep them from having to spend their evenings alone, perusing a three-year-old issue of "Mother Jones" magazine under the flickering half-light of that critter-scat-powered lamp in their hydroponic marijuana nursery, before crawling under their unbleached burlap sheets for the unsatisfying solace of a non-gendered dildo carved out of a cruelty-free handmade beewax candle.  Hmmmm.... did I go a little too far on that one... eh.. maybe not.

I give them this, though. Today's protesters here in Wonderland are a lot more media-savvy than their predecessors, striving to spend more time in front of the camera than a lens cover.  Sure, without a doubt, there are many people out there truly sacrificing for a worthy cause.  However..... am I stuck on stupid or sumthang?  I opine that for every one of them, there are many more who are in it for the publicity, the sex or the buzz.  I know I was when I was a student.  Ok, look who's at the top doing the protesting: garage band dropouts, the chronically unemployed, limelight-whore politicians, ACLU lawyers and B-list entertainers, just to name a few.  People for whom living up in the top of a tree for 3 years could only be considered a lifestyle improvement.  But, at the top of that tree is some really bad rotton fruit.... Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. 

Lets get serious here for a moment! 

Quoting Juan Williams: "These two twaddling charlatans create support by focusing on 'victimhood.'  That says to a black individual, 'You can't help yourself; you can't help your family; and therefore all you can do is wait for the government to do something for you.'  I think it is a message of weakness and ineffectual thinking that is absolutely crippling the poor and especially minorities in the United States." 

Some hard facts: (that the Jesse and Al Stupid Show know all about)  The dropout rate, now at about 50% nationwide for black and Latino students.  The average black student who graduates from high school reads and does math at an eighth grade level.  It's a fact that 44% of the nation's prison population is made up of black people, and blacks account for 37% of violent crimes, even though they make up only 13% of the population.  This a crying shame and it should not be!  I think it's attributed to a self-defeating black culture of victimhood, one that says doing well in school is a cop-out and that the way to be successful is to come off as threatening.  Holy Pope on a bike.... these kids need help!  Where are you Jesse and Al?  Oh yeah, I forgot.  You freaking guys are toooooo busy suing big business and collecting the rewards to worry about your young and upcoming generation.

Did you know that it's a fact that many black immigrants from Africa and the Caribbean who have come to the ol' US of A are far more successful than blacks who have grown up in America.  That says a hell of a lot for our black leaders, doesn't it.  One last fact, Pew Research Center poll found that two-thirds of black Americans agree with 75 percent of white Americans who say too many black people are overly dependent on government programs.  In other words, a clear majority of the nation, including most black people, are saying that the poor need to look in the mirror and halt their self-defeating behavior.  'nuff said.

Getting back to that tree.  Remember that girl in the redwood tree?  I think her name was Butterfly, and she was living there to keep a timber company from cutting it down. She stayed up in that tree for over a year... bless her... through lightning storms and rain and fires.  And I have to say... I was damn inspired.  So inspired, in fact, that about a week after hearing about Butterfly, when the manager of a now defunct shoe store refused to give me a refund for what was obviously a defective pair of Nike sneakers.... well hell, I got a sleeping bag and some basic supplies and climbed up in the green-striped canvas awning over the store's front door.  And I read a Ironman comic, took a nap, ate an olive-loaf sandwich, talked to some friends on my cell phone... then four hours later when the bird shit started piling up and it got too hot to hold the phone and while needing an elephant size leak,  I climbed down and went home, cursing Butterfly all the way.  I don't think they even knew I was up there.  But I knew it... and a few street people walking by and giving me the finger knew it... and I... I just think sometimes you have to take a nap in other people's awnings, that's all. 

And a personal note to all the eco-zealots out there, inexplicably blocking the roads to protest global warming: nobody loves this planet more than I do. I live here, most of the time, anyway.  But don't make me sit in traffic for six hours because the only way Momma Earth will let you do her is if I stop using hairspray.... OK, Green' Bean?

You know, in 42 years, this country has gone from when I was a idiotic Vietnam protestor from Georgetown U. placing roses down the barrels of National Guardsmen's rifles in Washington D.C. and sharing a bit of blanket with Minnie McFlowerChild on the lawn of the Pentagon for 2 cold nights in '66 to now seeing over-zealot football fans tipping over garbage cans and setting fire to a police car and a pile of couches because they're pissed that their No.#4 football team lost to the 37th ranked team in the nation.  I can't tell if we've grown soft or just lost our freaking minds.

Ironically, nonviolent protest is at its most effective when it sparks the authorities into violence, shaming them in the eyes of the world.  So what I'm saying is, if you're a cop, and some irate malcontent who's dressed up like a freaking sea-turtle is screaming in your face about globalization or multinational corporations or whatever the latest codeword is for "my parents say I have to be out of the house for at least four hours a day," well, pull out your billy club and give him a good whack on that so-many-piercings-you'd-think-it-was-a-freaking-tacklebox noggin of his.  He'll be getting exactly what he wants.  And if not, well, at least you will.   .....Warph

[flo]

now there's some good reading 

[Dee Gee]

Warph, I have read all your posts but I believe you have hit the nail on the head with this one.
Good writing, Thanks for posting it.

[Teresa]

I've said it more than once..
I love your style of writing..