Monday, December 8, 2014

Rallies Scare Me

       There is something that always makes me a little nervous about rallies be they for Israel or save the whales.  There is always that underlying feeling that they could get out of hand. Aside from not understanding what their mission even was,  Occupy Wall Street unnerved me. But still until recently these rallies have ultimately been fairly tame.
        Lucky for us now that there is a black president there seems to be even more civil unrest, not unlike when there were the Crown Heights riots when David Dinkins was mayor of New York City. I do not think that they directly incited any of the tensions but I do not think that it is a coincidence that such unrest has occurred when either of them have been in office. First there was Trayvon Martin, then there were Ferguson riots and now the Eric Garner protests. It seems with the last two the emotions are at a fever pitch. There were riots incited by the death of Michael Brown and there were protest all over the country in a way I do not remember ever happening in my lifetime. Shortly after the pandemonium in Ferguson was the Eric Garner verdict. There have been massive protests in New York that I have fortunately have been able to avoid . People get a little crazy when these things happen. I think that there is an even deeper problem than racism in these cases  which is why I opt not to join up with the protesting masses. There often is police brutality with people in general. It is not just with non-white people. I also feel like these protests have taken on a life of their own. Case in point the burning down of twenty-nine businesses in Ferguson. I do not see the police arresting anyone who burned down those buildings. A bit scary don't you think?
        When I used to think about Arab spring and what is going on in France I could not understand how  these things could happen. With the tempo of the protests in the United States... . Well lets say I am less than calm. I think its time for me to take up saying tehillim for world peace.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Know justice, know peace. No justice, no peace.

Mighty Garnel Ironheart said...

Feh. Look up the race riots and anti-Vietname protests of the 1960's. What's happening now is nothing compared to that.