It Must Be Open Season

I really wonder about some people's priorities sometimes. It is my view that you should always prioritize on the things you need to do to survive first, then the things that make you happy. So when it comes to the way some out there think and the things they think are most important, I really start to think that we definitely do not share the same priorities.

Take for example these idiots up there in Quebec protesting at the big free trade meetings. 34 world leaders, looking to improve the world economy and that of their respective nations, in the hope that things such as black market dealings and drug trafficking may be squashed and with that, the needless deaths that come with it (think "Scarface"). You'll recognize these people; you saw them first in Seattle disrupting the huge WTO summit and then at the Democratic National Convention complaining something to the effect that the American Left was too far to the right or something like that. The common thread in these protests, and again in Quebec was the fact that they have made a cottage industry of harassing police and causing normally cosmopolitan urban areas to suddenly resemble Beirut on a bad day.

During a recent round of flipping through the channels, I landed on a documentary on the public access channel depicting the "plight" of the Seattle protesters and the harsh treatment the police gave them in the final days of the summit. Now I did come to sympathize their situation, though certianly not their ideals, but the problem is they seemed to come away from the ordeal with the idea that all they need to do is cause the police to do similar crackdowns wherever they protest and they will get automatic sympathy from the American public. Hence, the last two large gatherings of these nutjobs, first in LA last summer, and now in Quebec. First in LA, they were as I said protesting some sort of thing the Dems have done or whatever, and their heroes, Rage Against the Machine showed up and held a free concert. Well, the concert ends and the wackjobs refuse to leave, and it's getting close to the end of the nightly "show" that tends to be these political conventions, so the cops are getting antsy. They move in to start telling people to leave, and the wackjobs refuse. The cops ask again, the wackjobs refuse and by now are throwing rocks at the police. So, the police do what they are SUPPOSED to do in this situation, and they fire the teargas and they round up the especially belligerent and toss them in the paddywagons. So what do we hear the next morning from various nutjobs on the news? "Police brutality, man! They were beating us, dude!"

I know what happened in Chicago in 1968, I've heard the stories, I saw "Medium Cool", I know the whole deal. In Chicago '68, the police responded to a peaceful march by beating the crap out of people. This was not Chicago '68. This was a mob that refused to disperse, in the same parking lot where some other morons (or possible the same ones, you never know) decided to start a few bonfires using LAPD cars as kindling following the Lakers' NBA championship a few months previous. This was the police coming in to disperse a crowd that refused to leave despite repeated warnings and in a sense doing their job. Police are not supposed to provoke violence, they are supposed to prevent it, and this is what they did. However, instant sympathy did go to the Seattle bunch because well, it happened in Seattle, and this IS the LAPD, so we believe you and not the cops. Wonderful.

So, we get the big trade summit up north in Quebec and the Seattle bunch is there with their standard playbook. They notice that the authorities have put up security barricades near the site of the meetings. This does make sense, after all; there is so much anti-American sentiment out there these days that some Osama Bin Laden follower would probably love to pick off a Bush or two if he got the chance, and so security is needed. Well, the Seattle bunch didn't like that much, so they started breaking the barricades down and throwing pieces of it (concrete, mind you) at the cops. And they threw hockey pucks as well (when in Rome, I suppose). The police responded accordingly, with tear gas and the like. Now I am willing to put money down on this (somebody else's money, not mine, remember I work in RADIO) that Monday morning, all we're going to read and hear about is how the Quebec police were out of line and that there was mass police brutality.

Now back to my whole idea of prioritizing (there IS a method to my madness, after all). These loons up in the land of the loon (different definitions, obviously) certainly do not share the same priorities in life as I do. After all, you do not need to protest in order to live, and secondly, I doubt throwing debris at the police, getting gassed and screaming "police brutality" is anyone's idea of fun. On the other hand, I could be completely wrong and this bunch actually DOES get off on the idea of massing in some major metropolis and causing trouble with the local protection. If this is the case, then I for one feel sorry for these people. What could possibly be so earth-shaking that requires the need to do this behavior? "Free trade will destroy the environment and hurt the poor?" Not good enough for me, especially because you couldn't be more WRONG. Free trade leads to common approaches and a consenus on preventing environmental damage, and it helps the poor by giving them jobs and helping them to attain a higher standard of living. Why immigrate to America when you can have the same quality of life in your own country? I dunno, maybe some people just seem to have a problem with anyone making money these days. Maybe they're former dot-com CEOs who just lost everything or something like that.

Feel sorry for these people, and also for another class of people, those who get offended too easily. I have a warning on my still-not-updated humor page (don't get me started on that) for a reason; because there actually are people who sit around all day waiting for something to offend them so they can protest, boycott, sue, whatever. They must lead meaningless existences, but they do exist. Case in point: Stewart's convenience stores out in Eastern New York (you MUST try their sodas, by the way) has come out with a new flavor of ice cream spoofing the stories of contamination in the Hudson River. It's called "Hudson River Mud" and is advertised to be made with "PCBs", that being Pecan, Chocolate, and Butterscotch (mmmm, butterscotch). Apparently, one local was so mortifed by the fact that someone would actually make light of supposed pollution that she announced in one of our local online gathering places that she was going to boycott Stewart's. I guess she'll never frequent any place out in LA that sells products with "smog" in the title. I for one thought the story and ad campaign to be quite funny, and if you can't laugh at the world, then you really need help; I'm sorry, but that's the way I feel. It is possible to make light of bad things and still want to fix them. Hell, enough people make fun of all the things we've got wrong around here in Syracuse, but we still want to at least attempt to make this a better place to live. If I felt something was important enough to protest, I would. However, I would not go provoking violence with the police and I would not let it totally consume me to the point where I find nothing funny but everything offensive.

Okay, that was my occasional "very serious" column. Next week: an essay on bowling (you think I'm kidding, right?)