Boomers are smug when it comes to street protests. They’ve been memorably tear-gassed and arrested, they’ll remind you. They’ve been prosecuted for burning their bras and wearing flags on their butts, clubbed by police, even shot.
The protests of our youth were noisy and often destructive. Some were exciting. A lot of them were embarrassingly silly or just plain boring.
The results were divisive, forcing communities to harden their positions on racial segregation, gay rights, the Vietnam war, women’s rights. But everywhere, people were talking about the issues. Books were written. Songs were sung. Movies made.
So, you can’t blame the boomers — most of them now collecting Social Security and spending what cherished time they have left playing pickleball — for waxing nostalgic about the glory days of civil disobedience in the period of what the late John Lewis called “good trouble.”
Because, after all, the protests worked. They forced people to pay attention.
While the battles over many of these issues continue, a lot of things changed as a direct result of the demands made in the streets of Selma, the fields of California, the gay bars of New York and college campuses across the country.
In his addled state during the dark days of his administration, Richard Nixon met with anti-war protesters holding a vigil one night. Even his aides said it was weird, but the message from his moonlit trip to the Lincoln Memorial was clear. The movement had power. The president of the United States had taken notice.
That wasn’t just the odor of weed in the air that night. It was the smell of victory.
It’s not yet clear whether the pro-Palestine demonstrations on college campuses this spring will be nearly so effective.
If you hang out at the encampment on the Auraria campus, you’ll see a well-orchestrated, peaceful demonstration with a posted schedule of events, a rotating cadre of speakers leading chants and singing songs, a crowd of people wearing Keffiyeh scarves — even several toilet tents with explicit rules for proper use.
Tents are spray-painted with slogans: “Boycott.” “Sanction.” “Divest.”
Training sessions are held to prepare protesters for encounters with law enforcement, including “the four steps to avoid accidentally talking to police.”
No. 4, considered the most important, is to say, “ ‘I want to talk to my lawyer,’ then shut the f— up.”
What’s harder to see is the endgame.
The war goes on and on. Efforts at negotiating a ceasefire and hostage releases have so far been fruitless. And even if universities agreed to divest from companies that do business in Israel, such as Amazon, Alphabet, Microsoft, Apple … the list is long, it’s hard to imagine that outcome bringing a speedy end to the fighting and a two-state solution.
In the meantime, antisemitic behavior worldwide has exploded, and Israel’s international standing has been seriously eroded by the 7-month-long war that has produced an estimated 30,000 casualties, many of them civilians, children, journalists and humanitarian aid workers.
It’s a horror show.
At the same time, the protests on campuses have been growing by the day despite law enforcement crackdowns in Texas, California and New York.
In fact, the harsher the police response, the more emboldened the protesters have become. The attention is intoxicating.
It’s proof they are getting noticed, which is the whole point.
Clearly, they won’t be ignored. But they will be exploited.
There are the House Republicans, who are calling for an end to federal funding for universities that don’t aggressively quell the protests. Trump is using social media to blast the demonstrators, saying “STOP THE PROTESTS NOW!!!” And Republican leaders have called on President Biden to send the National Guard to campuses to arrest the demonstrators and stifle dissent.
It’s an election year and chaos is political catnip.
At the same time, Hamas leaders and Iran’s Supreme Leader have issued statements applauding the student protesters, lending credibility to the far right characterization of the student activists as terrorists (which is ridiculous).
So, the campus encampments keep growing and the deliveries of vegan pizzas keep coming, along with media attention from the whole world.
The tradition of peaceful protest and civil disobedience is a time-honored one. It’s also messy and inconvenient, with messages that are often simple-minded and puerile.
Face it, not every demonstrator is going to be as eloquent as the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
Still, like it or not, this is what democracy looks like.
Let’s just hope we can keep it that way.
The Colorado Sun is a nonpartisan news organization, and the opinions of columnists and editorial writers do not reflect the opinions of the newsroom. Read our ethics policy for more on The Sun’s opinion policy. Learn how to submit a column. Reach the opinion editor at [email protected].
Follow Colorado Sun Opinion on Facebook.
Link to original article