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Thread: Would you counter-protest?

  1. #1
    Senior Member bae's Avatar
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    Would you counter-protest?

    A question raging on my community's local discussion group is:

    Would you show up for a counter-protest if the Nazis wanted to have a rally here?

    Interesting question, with some interesting responses being offered.

    So, in your community, if you heard in advance that the Nazis were going to show up and have a permitted rally on your village green, what actions would you engage in? What would be your reasoning?

    Me personally, I prefer distance from disorder when it's appropriate and moral. Showing up at a LARPing event to enter the fray holds no appeal to me. Yet for other causes I've shown up in person, and provided aid and assistance to one or both sides.

    Practically, here, we have only a handful of sheriff's deputies to help keep the peace, and would not be able to handle an event of the sort Charlottesville just experienced. Our local citizenry is pretty progressive, and even the conservatives tend towards the robust libertarian get-off-my-lawn side of things. We can produce several hundred protesters here for your normal run-of-the-mill causes, out of a population of several thousand, pretty much any day of the week. If a handful of Nazis showed up, we'd likely have thousands of people counter-protesting.

    Random neural firings...

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    I would do my best to go. What i understand was that locals in Charlottesville provided support and aid, also steered the Nazis away from a black neighborhood. That was one local account at least. There was also one really bad beating with no police around so being a witness is really important.

    We had a conversation in my meditation group about anger and what is happening. We have transgender members who are feeling very vulnerable and others of us are angry. However action does not need anger. I get tired of having action assumed to come from a negative source. Thereis a lot of caring and protective qualities to showing up.

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    Senior Member jp1's Avatar
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    I'm planning to show up to the event that is supposedly happening here in two weeks as are a bunch of our friends. I don't intend to be right at the front with a stylish shield but I do think that being part of the numbers of people who just show up matters. (kind of like how it apparently matters how many people show up on the mall for the inauguration...)

    SO has expressed interest in going, which, I admit, concerns me. I'm not a spring chicken, but I can still sprint a short distance if need be and within the last year did an OJ Simpson from one end of the phoenix airport to the other. (not to get to my Hertz rental car but to get to the gate of my next flight that was leaving in 15 minutes.) SO, on the other hand, is going through a fairly debilitating long-term illness and would not be capable of removing himself from the situation at any speed even vaguely resembling quick if things got ugly. I've tried to gently point that out to him and will continue to do so but ultimately as an adult it's his call what he does.

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    I would do my best to go. What i understand was that locals in Charlottesville provided support and aid, also steered the Nazis away from a black neighborhood. That was one local account at least. There was also one really bad beating with no police around so being a witness is really important.

    We had a conversation in my meditation group about anger and what is happening. We have transgender members who are feeling very vulnerable and others of us are angry. However action does not need anger. I get tired of having action assumed to come from a negative source. Thereis a lot of caring and protective qualities to showing up.

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    No. I wouldn't take a knife to a gun fight and I wouldn't fight a spiritual battle in the flesh. You can't reason with the devil and you can't defeat hate with more hate. I would pray against it and perhaps it would require fasting and prayer. How successful would the rally be if absolutely no one showed up to oppose them. We give them the power when we allow them to make us mad.

    12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

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    I'll be going this Saturday to the Commons in Boston. To observe - I don't know enough about protesting to be active, I'll leave it to the folks that do, and hope other folks have the sense to do the same. I might do water runs if it looks like it's needed.

    Red Cross has asked we be available in case we are asked to engage, so I'll be signing up for that and bringing my vest with me just in case.

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    Senior Member bae's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by jp1 View Post
    I'm planning to show up to the event that is supposedly happening here in two weeks as are a bunch of our friends.
    What's going on down there?

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    Senior Member jp1's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by bae View Post
    What's going on down there?
    http://www.sfexaminer.com/white-supr...ready-planned/

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  10. #10
    Senior Member iris lilies's Avatar
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    No, I wouldn't go to any Nazi event as an observer or a counterprotester. Why should I go now? I haven't gone in the past when they have come to town. Mainstream media has whipped up the citizenry and the media is puffed up with importance about that.

    There was no one group more pleased about Michael Brown and subsequent protests than mainstream media here. Our local newspaper had big stories every day during those events and they were able to win a Pulitzer Prize, thrilling for them.

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