Protests spawned on May 25 offer a lesson that should be obvious from history: A small fraction, hell-bent on destruction, takes control of a disturbance. A much larger fraction, not knowing they’re being exploited, accommodates that much smaller number. The result is chaos, as the real villains blend in (guerilla style). Will people EVER learn to see that?
Before addition of further description/interpretation of today’s incredibly complicated conflicts, this needs to be highlighted: Extremists on both right and left are wrong — dead wrong, to focus on one single part of a much larger set of injustices, all in urgent need of correction.
On the left:
An alarming percentage of those representing the Democratic party insist on forcing social and economic policies and legislation on all Americans that vast numbers of us flat-out don’t want. Examples:
* “Medicare for all” (Take away everyone’s insurance? Bankrupt the country?)
* “Government jobs for everyone” (Look at what that did for Greece)
* “Fire All police” (Let crime run rampant?)
On the right:
Far-right extremists + white supremacists + “Boogaloo Bois” + Q-Anon … etc. work overtime to leverage protests across the entire country and beyond, to inflict violence plus property damage, and threaten other communities with it. Fully armed with guns (terrorizing anyone accused as tied to antifa) and disguises (some posing as antifa), they join the spread of fear across the Internet (“See what’s happening? Your community is next ! “). Georgia’s primary offers a preview of their encore. God help U.S. in November.
Make no mistake: America has enemies external and within dedicated to the destruction of our country. One of their most powerful weapons is the ability to raise political tensions to fever pitch. Construct a set of half-truths by mixing a set of truths (“A”) with a set of lies about another group (“B”). Then combine the truth from set (B) with lies from set (A). Next convince millions that the first set is correct and millions of others, preferably with a 50/50 balance, that the second set is correct. Then wait for an event to arise (with so much happening, something is bound to come up) — and use that for all it’s worth.
Unfortunately it’s worth a lot. The above is an oversimplification but something like it is working.
There are some encouraging signs. Only a few examples are included here:
* A sheriff and other officers in Flint MI talked peacefully with protesters
* Former Defense Secretary Gen. Jim Mattis proclaimed strongly against deploying U.S. troops
* Former White House chief of staff John Kelly is in agreement with Gen. Mattis
* There’s an older addition if I may cite item #1 from a book I published in 2005.
There’s MUCH more to all this. Let me offer a reminder from a friend (John Beukers) whose warning in a different context before 9/11/2001 is cited in the Air Traffic Control report I finished in May 2020, with his assessment of that danger:
“We were served notice but we didn’t notice“
Now we’ve been put on notice again in another way. Let’s notice it this time. Do you get all your news from TV? From any one source? Is it from “A” or “B” ? Terrence Floyd deserves a ton of credit for (1) noting that destruction just adds more burden to the disadvantaged and (2) his appeal for peace. So wisdom is really out there. We just need to be willing to accept it.
