Words matter. I think we can all agree that just as a rose is not a dandelion, a bullet is not a stick. And we should also be able to agree that protest is not necessarily anarchy.
Calling Black Lives Matter protesters “domestic terrorists,” while waving away the fact that most BLM protests are peaceful, is Orwellian newspeak at its finest. Like it or not, the First Amendment protects their speech just as sincerely as it does that of the gun-waving guy storming a state legislature to protest (sigh) wearing the face-mask that could save his grandma’s life.
Like Gandhi and Dr King, I advocate avoiding violence as a wiser tactic in the long run. Carry only signs on our sticks, be a silent, singing or chanting presence as we march. Torching my neighbor’s car or business makes no sense to me. Besides, I want it plain as possible that we march on the high road, our voices rightfully heard. I want it crystal clear which party is responsible for violence or provocation.
When you have peacefully marched for social justice, in defense of women’s rights or scientific truth, you are rightly furious at being mis-characterized as a terrorist.
Reliving a protest from long ago in today’s headlines
I have the nature of righteous protest much on my mind recently, and not just because of Black Lives Matter. I’ve already described Timothy’s acquaintance with tear-gas, when he photographed the moratorium march on Washington in 1969. Imagine my astonishment when, digging through a box labelled “family and past lives,” I found this:
It is the front cover of the Wisconsin State University student newspaper, Royal Purple. Timothy attended WSU’s Whitewater campus for less than a year. He pretty swiftly discovered he didn’t care for the Midwest and headed back to Long Island University in Brooklyn.
But not before making his mark as a budding photojournalist.
I can’t find the rest of the paper, but why else would he have kept this if it were not his photograph, the one he said “made the papers.” I think he must have taken it at the first great Moratorium march. How else could the Purple have had it in print the following Monday, in time to highlight the second march?
The Wiki entry about the marches on Washington has this to say:
Agnew also accused the peace movement of being controlled by “hardcore dissidents and professional anarchists” who were planning “wilder, more violent” demonstrations at the next Moratorium.[8] In its coverage of the first marches, an article in Time remarked that the Moratorium had brought “new respectability and popularity” to the anti-war movement.[7]
The parallels proliferate
“The first nationwide Moratorium was followed on Saturday, November 15, 1969, by a second massive Moratorium march in Washington, D.C., which attracted over 500,000 demonstrators against the war, including many performers and activists.[13] This massive Saturday march and rally was preceded by the March against Death, which began on Thursday evening and continued throughout that night and all the next day. … Despite his public disdain, Nixon watched the march on television, staying up until 11 pm as he obsessively watched the demonstration outside of the White House and tried to count how people were participating, eventually reaching the figure of 325,000.[14] Nixon joked that he should send helicopters to blow out the candles.”
Read carefully what the balance of the Wiki entry has to say:
“The vast majority of demonstrators during these days were peaceful; however, late on Friday, conflict broke out at DuPont Circle, and the police sprayed the crowd with tear gas. The people of Washington, D.C., generously opened schools, seminaries, and other places of shelter to the thousands of students and others who converged for this purpose. In addition, the Smithsonian Museum complex opened to allow protesters a place to sleep.”
Now where have I read something like that recently? Peaceful protesters characterized by the White House as dangerous radicals. A president consumed by watching television, sending military enforcers onto D.C.’s streets. The people of Washington opening their doors… Oh right. Here.