No Justice, No Peace

So, the protests carry on in Portland, OR.  The last two days of demonstrations have included crowbars, hammers, bear spray and firearms, as well as a fire set outside the federal courthouse entrance.  The reasons for the protests included not only the trial of Derek Chauvin, who had third-degree murder charges reinstated in the George Floyd case, and is awaiting trial after a jury is seated; but also the extension of a tar sands pipeline from Canada to Wisconsin.

This blogger condemns anything other than peaceful protests, but it is hard to do so wholeheartedly.

I want to at all times stand for the advancement of progressive values.  And I certainly recognize that there are those on the right hand side of the aisle whose minds are sufficiently open to the possibility of injustice and the righting of it.  Protesters/fellow progressive patriots, we owe it to ourselves to take the high road in order to give those folks a chance to decide to stand with us.  There is strength in numbers, and we sure could use their help.  If we attend protests ultimately wielding weapons, setting fires, and destroying property (besides it being intrinsically wrong), we become everything those more conservative folks fear, and we turn them against us, making it easier for them to rationalize inaction against the injustice, and the injustice itself, which is almost universally followed by corresponding power grabs by the moneyed/powerful ones behind the injustices.

Not to mention making it easier to rationalize when some of their cohorts are the violent ones, like on January 6, and to a large extent last summer.

But then, if we do things by the book, we have the reasonable expectation that we would have our grievances fairly and thoroughly addressed.  This would be the result we would expect of a peaceful protest.  That is what the other side would owe us as befits good-faith actions on the part of us, the peaceful protesters.

And this is the crux of my less-than-whole-heartedness.  Look at history, and judge for yourselves if peaceful protest and operating within the law has any more than rarely ended up in anything but status quo:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_incidents_of_civil_unrest_in_Colonial_North_America

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_incidents_of_civil_unrest_in_the_United_States

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_racial_violence_in_the_United_States

https://time.com/5542892/kitty-marion--suffrage-birth-control/

https://www.history.com/news/night-terror-brutality-suffragists-19th-amendment

https://prohibition.themobmuseum.org/the-history/the-road-to-prohibition/the-temperance-movement/

https://www.history.com/topics/gay-rights/the-stonewall-riots

You can see by reading a bit on those links, and researching a bit, that those movements started off peacefully.  Still, little or no change was enacted.  Eventually push came to shove.  Unfortunately, just about every major social change or revolution has been accompanied by violence.  Why?  Because those not being marginalized denied that marginalization was taking place, either out loud or by evincing no reaction to the marginalization.  Since the majority consociation held the power, the marginalized group was able to achieve no change.  The status quo prevailed until the marginalized group took a "No Justice, No Peace" type of position, then change was gradually, sometimes quickly affected.  Isn't it just easier, more peaceful and cost-effective to grant and enforce everyone's equal rights?  

Nonetheless, I am calling for both sides in this matter to do the right thing.  Protesters, be peaceful, without exception.  And establishment, address the grievances with thoroughness, equity and dispatch.  To ignore them, as is history, is to say those grievances are meaningless.  And is to say that the people who have those grievances are worth less than you.   And a wise man once counseled against considering people "worth-less" - Matthew 5:21-22.  That kind of treatment is its own form of violence.  Socially-accepted, passive-aggressive violence, but violence nonetheless.  And you have no right, therefore, to complain when karma comes back around in the form of more violence.

Most importantly, fence-sitters, those of you who know in your hearts that these injustices are going on or are considering that they might be:  You are the ones who actually have the most power here.  I implore you -- investigate, do what is right.  If you don't, you will account for it in some way, shape or form later, I guarantee.  If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem.

https://www.usnews.com/news/us/articles/2021-03-13/portland-oregon-police-detain-at-least-100-protesters

https://news.yahoo.com/rioters-set-fire-federal-courthouse-162333860.html