Two Wrongs Never Make a Right
Two wrongs never make a right.
Over the weekend, a protest got violent. If the answer, as some believe, is to take arms against this sea of trouble... then count me out. I'll have no part of it.
I am raising three boys. White males in this society which so often gives a wink and a nod to their violence. I won't have it.
I know we are angry. I know we are hurt, furious, watching our rights be stripped away from us. But when we lower ourselves to the level of violence, we have lost all perspective.
And our dignity.
Put the anger to work in a positive way. Please. We need the resources. But if you think hurting anyone, ever, is the answer to the problem, you don't have an inkling to how social change comes about.
Seeing the video on Pam's House Blend embarrassed me. I could hardly watch. Reading some of the comments horrified me.
We just gave the most powerful ammunition to the other side. A couple of people on video is enough to make this all come crashing down.
It breaks my heart. All the years of being a parent at elementary school, all the years of marching in Pride parades, all the peaceful activism is for nothing if this continues.
Please stop. My marriage means nothing if a single person is hurt in order to save it.
Over the weekend, a protest got violent. If the answer, as some believe, is to take arms against this sea of trouble... then count me out. I'll have no part of it.
I am raising three boys. White males in this society which so often gives a wink and a nod to their violence. I won't have it.
I know we are angry. I know we are hurt, furious, watching our rights be stripped away from us. But when we lower ourselves to the level of violence, we have lost all perspective.
And our dignity.
Put the anger to work in a positive way. Please. We need the resources. But if you think hurting anyone, ever, is the answer to the problem, you don't have an inkling to how social change comes about.
Seeing the video on Pam's House Blend embarrassed me. I could hardly watch. Reading some of the comments horrified me.
We just gave the most powerful ammunition to the other side. A couple of people on video is enough to make this all come crashing down.
It breaks my heart. All the years of being a parent at elementary school, all the years of marching in Pride parades, all the peaceful activism is for nothing if this continues.
Please stop. My marriage means nothing if a single person is hurt in order to save it.
posted by Sara at 11:54 AM
12 Comments:
sorry to hear about that. my mother attended protests in Phildelphia which were very peace=ful with a gigantic turn out.
The protests in Baltimore and DC were also peaceful, and very well-attended.
I don't approve of violence at all, but I also don't think it was a particularly wise move for the anti-gay protesters to march into The Castro on a Saturday night.
just sayin'
Just wanted to say I really liked your post. Your right that peace is the way to go, good for you for taking a stand for kindness, and harmony and what a good mom!
Responding to provocateurs isn't just wrong, it's stupid. The anti-gay protestors who marched into the Castro had one thing in mind, and our friends and allies gave it to them. For free.
We'd better learn from what the students at Washington U did when Phylis Schlafly spoke, and what people are doing when the Phelpses show up: stand up and turn our backs on them.
violence is never the solution to any problem and i, like you, will have no part in it!
we should never stoop to their depths!
We had about 200 people at our gathering. Not a lot, but the regs felt good about seeing A LOT of faces we didn't recognize. We also had two families there counter protesting. Several individuals from the protesters went and stood around them with their signs. The people passing could not even see the counter protesters. There were no words exchanged or confrontations, but they were made invisible.
i don't see any violence in that video. is it just me?
As Gandhi said, "There is no force on earth greater than the indomitable will." (or something to that effect.) You're exactly right. We need to stand firm, but NOT if it means violence. Our great strength is the power of love and nonviolence. That is what wins hearts and minds, and tips the balance.
I feel sick when I see our side forfeit dignity and stoop to violence. Let it stop.
Thanks for this post, Sara.
San Diego, over 25,000 attended which is phenomenal considering its a rather conservative county. Not one arrest except for a Yes on Prop 8 protester who identified as a Minute Man member who was arrested for trying to start a fight. San Diego had the largest participation and a VERY Peaceful protest. http://www.flickr.com/photos/32492830@N04/
am i losing my mind? it's like one person said something and everyone else is running with it. i think it's really dangerous for rumours about violence to start within the gay community itself.
there was no violence in that video. they said people called them hurtful names like "bigot." well, if you're trying to set up shop in the Castro and convert people to being straight, you are a bigot.
where's the violence?!
I've watched the video and read the comments on PHB and I still don't see where this equates with "violence". Someone said a woman was pushed down - and that the person that did it was handed over to the police by our side. Everything I saw on the video was a nonviolent protest. No cars were damaged. No people were injured. The police seemed to be taking it all in stride. It was a loud, angry, walking protest.
If someone were attacked or injured or property damaged, I'd be right there with everyone else calling for an end to violence. But this video wasn't violence. It was loud and it was angry but it was peaceful.
What are you expecting?
Grace and consistency?
Those people are loud, rude, obnoxious, arrogant, disrespectful, ignorant, monotonous, redudant, annoying..and whatever word that I haven't thought of yet for this comment.
Now maybe it doesn't happen where you live, Ms. Whitman, but where I live, there are people just like them who pull similar stunts like these all the time all throughout the boros of NYC.
It's usually in the economically disadvantaged neighborhoods where you'll find people like the ones in the video standing in some street corner or mid block screaming into megaphones, or they'll bring a portable sound system plug into a battery powered generator and go off incessantly for hours and hours, usually when people just want to kick it back after a long hard day at work.
I don't fault at all what took place. It's been long overdue.
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