I don’t know how you could defend it.
Protesting is an honored way for Americans to express outrage, but when it crosses a line those involved must be dealt with as criminals. When you stop following the rule of law, your protest is no longer about righting a wrong, but rather about vengeance.
When police are attacked, federal buildings invaded, pieces of history destroyed and lives are lost, the goal is gathering a pound of flesh rather than cultivating awareness.
To be sure, it was largely peaceful. In fact, there are claims that oppositional operatives in disguise made their way into the crowd and orchestrated the most destructive acts, ensuring that barbaric images would shock the world.
When the images from a protest resonate louder than its message, it serves to detract from the very goal of the movement.
Now let me ask you this, did you think I was talking about the recent Capitol protests – or did your mind go to the racial unrest of the summer? Because the description of both is exactly the same.
Americans took up a cause (racial injustice and election complaints), took to the streets and things got out of hand. Federal buildings were overrun (the Portland Federal Courthouse and the Capitol). Historical artifacts were destroyed (various statues throughout the summer and then last week the functional center of our democracy was ransacked). Police have been attacked by both groups. Deaths have resulted in both cases.
The issue is that we, as a country, aren’t concerned with messages coming from people who aren’t like us. We don’t want to know what the other person is going through. We don’t want to hear about their issues. Their problems aren’t our problems so we choose to act like they don’t matter.
And then we use the violent acts of the minority to discredit the entire movement. The right broadly says “those are looters not protesters” while the left cries “insurrection.”
Truthfully, people don’t even want to hear what the other side has to say. We have certainly found that out in the past few weeks at the Journal-Tribune.
We ran a story about a local city council member who traveled to Washington D.C. for the Jan. 6 rally and ran a story about his observations. He relayed that he did not see any of the rioting or destruction, but saw thousands of people being patriotic.
People instantly attacked him for ignoring the ills of the rally as it turned into a riot. He was accused of sugar coating a historical black eye on the face of the country. People called for him to step down from council and two individuals said as much at recent meeting. He was there and he was culpable, they reasoned.
Also, apparently, his message was so damaging that it did not have a right to be heard. The newspaper took numerous phone calls, emails and letters which said we should not have run the story. His message was bad and we should not have amplified it, they reasoned. Some yelled and cursed and hung up on us.
You can debate the merits of the councilman’s message, but you can’t claim that the story shouldn’t have been run. He was a local official taking part in an event that will have historical significance. His reflections have weight.
If you feel the Capitol uprising was the work of a few people that unraveled a peaceful event, then the councilman confirmed your stance.
If you believe thugs destroyed the Capitol at the behest of the president, then you might question the councilman’s perceptions.
In either case, you learned something about a local elected official and that is important.
We’ve gotten to a point in this country where we don’t want to absorb information, consider reason or attempt to see a situation from all sides.
We don’t care why a protest was being held, we just don’t like it. We say that it should never have been allowed to happen in the first place. Violence during such events only allows us to justify our disdain.
Have you ever seen a yapping dog in a yard? A miserable creature, barking without end at anything outside the confines of its own fence. Mailman, car or even another dog – the animal will bark angrily at it. Sometimes there will be two or three dogs in the same yard, all barking at something without knowing why.
If something lies outside of the yard, it is bad and will be barked at.
That’s were we are at as a country, two dogs behind facing fences, barking until breathless at the other side’s simple existence – having never set foot in the other yard.
-Chad Williamson is the managing editor for the Journal-Tribune.