Every Violent Protest had a Spark

Somebody usually died first.

The day we stop protesting is the day we are no longer a democracy.

Our country is a country of protests. There are some who want to outlaw protesting, but it’s quite an American thing to do. It’s in our DNA.

There are some who say it’s the media’s fault. But there was plenty of protesting during the birth of this country when many were illiterate and word of mouth was the only medium. Twitter and Facebook apps are not required for a protest. There have always been protests about injustice.

That’s how we became the United States of America.

One example is the Boston Tea Party. Over one hundred men dumped 342 pounds of tea in Boston Harbor on December 16th, 1773 as a protest against “taxation without representation.” This was the beginning of many such actions.

The Boston Tea Party was the first significant act of rebellion by American colonists against the British.

But it didn’t happen in a vacuum

Three years before, on March 5th, 1770, thousands of Bostonians were in the streets, protesting the presence of the British soldiers in town to enforce the new taxes from the British. They were taxing us for sugar, wool, stamps, slaves, tea, currency (currency?), and even hats!

The angry Bostonians called themselves patriots. They ended up fighting British soldiers — and after military reinforcements arrived, the soldiers opened fire, killing five colonists and wounding six.

Crispus Attucks, a black man, was the first to die in defense of this country.

You don’t hear much about this. That was the spark.

We fought our way to independence. Britain taxed us outrageously and yet we didn’t accept the injustice. They killed us in the streets. But we didn’t lie down like a bunch of weaklings and peacefully pay the higher amounts just because Great Britain was in debt.

That spirit of America is still here.

There are some who will tell you to protest nicely

They look with rose-colored glasses on the past. They naively act as if the Boston Tea Party was an orchestrated, quiet dance through the streets of Boston. But it was a riotous melee where people were injured, the property was damaged, and some were killed. Protests are volatile. Unpredictable. It’s not clean and nice just because it happened in1770.

The fact is, anytime large numbers of people meet in one place, it’s a gamble. Emotions are high especially when anger is involved. All one has to do is to analyze the protests of the past; we can see that some were peaceful while others were not. For example, 93% of the Black Lives Matter marches were peaceful like the one in my neighborhood, but some will harp on the 7% that were not.

There have been many marches in America; the 1913 Suffragette March, the Selma March in 1955, the 1963 Civil Rights March in Washington, the Stonewall Riots in 1969, and the Anti-Vietnam protests of 1969 are just a few. They all included violence. They also changed America.

Unfortunately, it seems to be the main method that rights have been won in this country. That is because when someone gains a right, there is usually a loser (or a perceived loser) on the other side. It was clear then and today that when Black people vote, they gain power.

The South was particularly aware of this and killed to prevent it. Today, they shut down voting sites in minority locations. It’s negatively affecting White voters too, and long lines to vote are becoming common in places like Alabama and Georgia.

Women (and men) fought for the right for women to vote for 100 long years. Men were aware that society might change if the “little woman” went to the voting station. He might not be able to control her. Men didn’t want to lose.

Don’t let the patina of time blind you to reality. The key is to prevent the protest from occurring in the first place. One must listen to the communication of the masses, and if caught in the early stages, problems can be addressed and mitigated.

But that makes too much sense. Look what happened when an alert was triggered.

A few years ago Colin Kaepernick took a knee

That was a peaceful protest. NFL quarterback turned American Activist Colin Kaepernick had one message: “He was against police brutality, particularly against black Americans, and racial oppression.” He was alerting the masses to the injustice that was occurring in our cities.

Let us recall how his “peaceful” plea was received in 2016:

Kaepernick lost his career. NFL owners blackballed him, even when many of them could have used him. In their defense, they knew if they did take him, there would be a backlash. So many of them held on to their losing season.

The president of the United States knowingly ignored the message and conflated it into a lie — he said that Kaepernick was disrespecting the flag; thereby intentionally distorting and ignoring an important early message.

The irony is that President Trump openly encouraged the violence of police officers towards Americans early on in his term. “Don’t be too nice,” he said. He’s talking about suspects — and police stop innocent people all the time. At this rate, you and your loved ones are open bait for getting your head knocked into the windshield of a car.

Have you ever had a few bad apples? When they’re in proximity with good, beautiful fresh apples…the rot spreads. Cops are the same, especially when they receive horrendous, morally deficient encouragement from the top.

This “Take a Knee” movement wasn’t strong enough. It was too peaceful, so it was run over by the mob-like, vindictive behaviour of the President of the United States, and numerous weak people to count.

Colin Kaepernick tried to prevent the needless deaths of many unarmed Black men and women. Lord, he tried. But we lost them anyway…

George Floyd was a tragic symptom

George Floyd was what happened when peaceful protests don’t work. But he was the spark that led to protests all over the world. Because of modern technology, we had a video. We saw it all. And millions, who’d never thought about it before, saw murderous racism in action.

They all knew that this would not have happened to a White man — and it should not have happened to any human being. And they were outraged as they watched him lose his last breath.

But it’s not finished. The sparks keep popping up. Breonna Taylor. Elijah McClain, Jacob Blake, Rayshard Brooks…and more. Do you see them?

The fire is building.

If you want justice you have to fight for it. Don’t dare listen to people who tell you to keep your voice down, and wait for a favor. You will get nothing but a pat on the head and told to go away.

If you want justice you have to fight for it

When you see a protest…look for the spark behind it. You will find that the buildup to the conflict was ignored and minimized.

The riot that occurs is a sign of failure of leadership.

Our government refused to listen to the “Take a Knee” message. We now see the results. The costs are heavy and they’re increasing every day.

The leaders of today must open their ears and listen.

If they won’t, they’ll have to be voted out until leaders can be found that will.