PROTEST HISTORY: HIPPIES, BLUES BROTHERS, AND AMMON BUNDY

Blues Brothers and Ammon Bundy both on a Mission From God?

The history of non-violent protest is a rough one.

American college campuses rocked with turmoil in the Sixties and early Seventies with protests against the Vietnam War.

The youth of America took notice of federal policy and didn’t like it.

And they came strong in waves of youthful baby boomers cutting class for the sit-in, be-in.

Did our hippie protesters stop the war?

First off, not all protesters were hippies. Secondly, the war did end…in 1975.

Why the protesting?

The loud sounds of the mid-sixties motivated the Silent Majority to speak up in the 1968 Presidential Election.

Hello President Nixon. But it wasn’t easy, especially at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

For a few nights the police waded in swinging sticks and sweeping the streets.

It wasn’t an armed conflict, except for the police, and no one died.

The lefties got pounded, decamped, and eventually lost the election.

The right celebrated and took office.

Ammon Bundy wasn’t born yet, but it’s hard to think he’d disapprove.

A year later NYC police raided a gay bar to root out the fellas and save the city.

Except this time, instead of rolling over, gay men took it to the cops.

The idea of the delicate little fairy boys disappeared once the ass kicking began.

History calls it the Stonewall Riots.

Politics and culture in Chicago and New York took the Sixties out.

And we’ve never looked back.

Ammon Bundy still wasn’t born.

Fast forward a few decades of civil disobedience to Occupy Oregon and the scene is the same.

People want change and the police bring it. People get out of hand and police help reel them back in.

From different eras the mix looks so familiar.

“We want change,” goes the chant.

“Desist and disperse,” comes the official answer.

Even the images look painful.

Cops in the hard gear, protesters in their normal gear.

Ammon Bundy and his crew learned the lesson.

If peaceful protests get you clubbed, show up armed and ready to resist.

Here’s the group talking it out indoors.

Will the current residents of the Malheur Wildlife Refuge find their way back home?

Will they accomplish their goals?

Does any protest get it all? Or nothing?

Let’s review.

One man protested tanks in Tiananmen Square.

He stood up for his believes.

Tank Man had the strength of his convictions and faced Red China.

His name and destination afterward are still unknown.

Or are they?

No one wants to see the tanks roll into Eastern Oregon.

No one wants to see Ammon Bundy stand up to tanks.

But he might.

China in 1989 isn’t Oregon in 2016.

It’s also not Moscow in 1993 where a constitutional crisis ended with dead in the street and artillery fired at the Russian White House.

How was it supposed to end?

Now ask how China or Russia would advise America to deal with the people temporarily occupying government land near Burns, Oregon?

If you’re going to make points by putting your body in harms was, jump right up and drive east.

Just know you’re going into a gun environment with gunners who may or may not respect life as much as you.

Are they well trained?

The best chance you have for not getting shot is being around people with guns who respect their weapons enough to use them correctly.

Are they equally motivated?

You don’t want to join a group of quitters.

Most of all you don’t want to associate with ranchers on a mission from God.

Ask Ammon Bundy, “What exactly does that mean?”

The biggest hurdle is joining a group led by a man with a boatload of kids, along with a brother with even more kids.

Ammon Bundy is a dad and a businessman.

And he has time to stage a siege on federal land?

Mr. Bundy, all of you, if you’re adding more children to the growing population why not use the time during their childhood to raise them with a father in the house, not just a father figure.

You made that bed, but you’re not sleeping in it.

What else is un-made, sir?