If You’re Going To Demonstrate, Do It Right
There have been demonstrations for as long as two people have disagreed on an issue. Political demonstrations really came into vogue in the late 50s and early to late 60s. TV brought them into our living rooms.
Little Rock, the Civil Rights Movement, the Vietnam War, brought a lot of young people to the streets of America to voice their discontent with governments and social norms of the day.
Demonstrations In the Sixties
Demonstrations during the 60s were not politically driven — they were cause driven. Republicans and Democrats marched side by side for civil rights in Selma.
Republicans and Democrats both marched against the war in Vietnam.
Are you going to try to make a case that the thousands of demonstrators at the 1968 Democrat National Convention in Chicago were all Republicans?
People demonstrating in the 60s didn’t pick sides — they picked what was right or wrong. Not from a political viewpoint but from a human standpoint.
Demonstrations Today
On my Wednesday morning show, I related a story of my driving to my Saturday show during the Bush administration.
Every Saturday there were people on the courthouse lawn protesting the war in the Middle East. Obama is elected president and they’re gone.
They weren’t protesting the war in the Middle East they were protesting Bush.
Otherwise the changing of the guard should have made no difference because young soldiers were still dying in the Middle East no matter who was President.
If anything the war should have increased their numbers.
I never saw them protesting again for the past eight years. Maybe they moved indoors.
I guess they’ll be back now that Trump is the president elect. If they’re going to return then I suggest they learn to spell "ISIS Go Home" and put that on their signs and support our total volunteer military.
Some Final Thoughts
When I talk about doing demonstrations right, I’m thinking back to my Vietnam days.
I wish the anti-war demonstrators had taken to the streets and demonstrated against my real life enemy that was trying to kill me — the North Vietnamese and the Viet Cong — versus the government.
Showing the enemy that the homeland was behind the soldiers would have gone a long way to shortening that war in my opinion.
If your cause is just by all means take to the streets. But just because you didn’t like the outcome of an election is not a cause — that’s an ideology that you want to force on others.
If you’re unhappy with the outcome of the election, you have two years to work on congress and four years to promote your candidate of choice for President.
The election is over. All the demonstrations in the world are not going to change the outcome.
If protesting is your bag then by all means do it peacefully and orderly. Otherwise dry your eyes, hitch up your pants, and get to work politically for a cause, not a party.
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