Remote Control
Who is the bad guy? In the movies, it’s obvious. But in the recent, smoke-filled frames of Portland, it’s GI Joe and Moms. Not really.
After all, it’s Portland, the leader of mellow cities for 40 years. Think of a place with 10,000 acres of parkland located within the city limits. Think of a place with the largest bookstore in the world. Add most of the remaining 1960’s Volkswagen vans, and one begins to get the picture. It’s quiet. Or, it was until May.
For 50 plus days there have been protests in a tiny section of downtown. At first, this wasn’t unusual since there were protests in more than 2000 American cities. 12 cities in Arkansas held such.
Perhaps it was unusual for Portland, which has a hideous racist past that included an 18th century lash law, a 19th century prohibition on entering, and a 20th century refusal of property ownership for Blacks. Today, it has a 72% white majority. But the tide is with Black Lives Matter, even if most protest faces are white.
Prompted by George Floyd and police brutality, the protests had shouts and graffiti, but mostly it was an old-fashioned march. Protesting is American, thanks to British tea bags and taxes. Every protest is gift wrapped in the First Amendment, specifically Congress shall make no law… abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble…
In Portland, unlike most cities, the demonstrations kept going. On July 4 the Feds arrived. Suited out as if they were in Iraq, the helmeted, gas-masked forces came armed with batons, rifles, pepper spray and canisters. What they don’t have is US Army stenciled across their chest. They come from Homeland Security, US Marshals, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, Customs and Border Control, ICE and who knows—identified only by camouflage. Everything about their appearance and actions says this is war.
The President says he sent them to establish order, but the strife has escalated. He said it’s violent crime, enabled by the Democrats running the state. That is confusing when the three most dangerous states in the US –Louisiana, Alaska and Tennessee – are led by Republicans.
Now, with a Trump reversal, the federal agents are in a phased withdrawal. Was the paramilitary in Portland to make peace somewhat like a bully, to distract from an unnerving pandemic, or to win an election?
Portland is the USA, where our brothers were and are confronting our sons and daughters — or in the case of Christopher David, our older Navy veteran son. Our President was defying Oregon Governor Kate Brown and gassing Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler.
This is us. The bad guys are not on the streets. Attacking our own is not in the military playbook, although following orders was and is. Where is the compassionate leader who values every citizen, the law and our constitution? OVER says the pilot, expecting a response. How about OUT.