G8 debate
When President Lyndon Johnson looked over the White House balcony in April 1968 and saw Washington burning he was sad, but he understood. He was reported as telling aides “if somebody had their boot on my neck for 300 years, I’d break a window too”.
Johnson understood the frustration of Black America then, after the assassination of Martin Luther King, and the need, sometimes, for violent expression.
But the events in Toronto on the weekend, with images of burning police cars and masked thugs breaking shop windows is another thing entirely. They were young, white opportunistic punks. They could have just as easily been smoking pot or at a rave. It was a party. There was no political content to their actions, and using peaceful protestors and the event of the G8/G20 meetings as an excuse, they simply rampaged.
My problem is this: when will organized labor stay home and stop violent marchers that walk among them or hire their own security to keep masked losers out. When will charges and fines be levied against groups that allow and watch violent thugs join their march? Organized labor in these G8 G20 events frequently provides cover for violent groups whether it is Seattle, Pittsburgh or Toronto. If organized labor had to pay for the costs of broken windows, they might do things differently. Besides, haven’t the Big unions done well by Big government lately? The rest of us don’t get a bail out.
Does anybody know what the beef is with the so-called “sane” protestors who have nothing better to do than carry a sign that real people don’t care about? What is it that the peaceful protestors don’t like…Capitalism? What? That things aren’t “fair”.
How about this: Life isn’t fair. And there’s nothing the world’s leaders can do about that.
Intelligent debate, properly applied, is effective in a democracy. Pony-tailed, post-hippie clowns who take their weekends to march — peaceful and violent protestors alike — are just folks looking for a place to show up.
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