Protests: Then and Now

I was going to write a post about what a bummer it is to have the Mike and Micky Show postponed due to Covid (although we want them and us to stay safe). Or mention how sad it is that MeTV has taken the Monkees out of rotation, in favor of more Andy Griffith and Love Boat. Just taken them off their broadcast slot on Sundays at 5 and 5:30.  One never knows who might accidentally discover or rediscover the show; people still click through channels on TV.

Replacing a slightly subversive TV show with absolute pablum and the glory days of the 1950s-the kind that never existed-this would have been enough.  But America is going through especially dark days.

As a tag-interview sequence to one of the Monkee shows, the Boys discussed the Sunset Strip "riots", about teenagers having a curfew-a bus was turned over and caught on fire. Daily Nightly and For What It's Worth are 2 songs that came out of that night. And then there were Vietnam protests. The camaraderie of Woodstock (and drugs and music) helped the white youngsters feel like they had the power to change the world. And in some ways they did. 

Before that (and in parallel) were the lunch counter protests, Martin Luther King Jr.'s marches, and even Malcolm X and the Detroit Riots.  Looking back- these 2 movements were so racially divided. The white teenagers in those years understood that things were getting bad and reacted in large groups-African Americans chose their tactics carefully.  And the police turned dogs and firehoses and (insert cruelty here) on the African Americans.

This past week, there was yet another African American killed at the hands of police. Someone else had been murdered while jogging, A white woman called the police because she had her dog off leash and was upset to be called out on it by an African American birdwatcher. There have been peaceful protests because America is having a moment right now, it is insane and this is our reality and it is impossible to take.  Protests have turned ugly, infiltrated by angry white groups-who are eager to incite violence, to light fires, to get the police to respond with violence.  

The country is leaning into an ugly part of itself.  It is hard enough for us to survive a pandemic, but this brutality visited on African Americans directly by the police is impossible to take.  And so many were outraged when the protest was simply taking a knee. Better for a football player to kneel in respect than a policeman on the neck of the country. 

Love is understanding. Violence is the opposite of that; sometimes love is not enough. Let's hope this revolution turns into a deeper understanding and a better America. Where we can love one another and treat each other with respect, equally. All of us. A more perfect union indeed.