How to Protest

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Being a child of the 60s when protests were all the rage it’s disappointing to see how today’s demonstrators have compromised the right of decent.

The Vietnam War

During the sixties and seventies there was a major anti-war movement. Both Republican and Democrat leaders embraced the idea of stopping the spread of Communism in Southeast Asia.

Keep in mind that we had sent the German’s and Japanese packing just 18 short years before. We were saviors of the free world — the true freedom fighters.

The 1968 Democrat Convention

The hippie generation that started in liberal San Francisco by Jerry Ruben and Tom Hayden and others, reached it’s tipping point in the hot Chicago summer of 1968.

There were massive demonstrations outside the Democrat Convention and became a real embarrassment to Mayor Richard Daley who ran Chicago with an iron hand.

Police moved in and inflicted major injuries to several demonstrators

Explaining Today’s Demonstrators

For those people who did not live through that era might have a hard time understanding why there was a demonstration outside a Democrat convention. Who were the demonstrators? Angry Republicans? That doesn’t compute somehow.

Now back in those days demonstrators actually demonstrated for the good of the people — not some political party or ideology. They had causes that transcended parties.

Most demonstrators at that time felt that government was making too much of an intrusion into their lives and they didn’t like it. To bad they can't see what's happening today.

They could have been compared to the Tea Party of today.

Commercially Made Protests?

If you show up at a demonstration with commercially made signs then your credibility is lost in my view.

You are a planned, not spontaneous, demonstration.

When Hispanic demonstrators in San Diego and LA were criticized for carrying Mexican flags they adjusted and the next demonstration only had the stars and bars in sight.

Some Final Thoughts

The Vietnam War was the first war where the general public failed miserably to support their men and women in uniform.

Why not demonstrate against the North Vietnamese? Why not demonstrate against ISIS today?

This is the message that should be sent rather than our own people attacking our own government for trying to defend itself.

While the Japanese did attack America, Germany never once attacked the United States of America.

Yet hundreds of thousands lost their lives in WWII trying to liberate those too weak to liberate themselves. It’s what America has always done.

Demonstrators of the sixties were trying to show that government had exceeded its powers and both parties were responsible.

What happened to freedom fighter leaders Jerry Ruben and Tom Hayden? Both sold out.

Ruben went to Wall Street and Hayden went into California government.

I guess the big money was more of an incentive than the loss of a few rights.

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