A few words...

First off just let me say that I will try my very hardest at keeping political posts to a minimum this season. I want Tres Birds to be a happy little place we can all sip tea and hang out at, but I so can't keep the trap shut on this one.

Let me pose a question to you…Do you think this REALLY had anything to do with the war in Iraq? Caption said, ”war protesters.” Last I checked smashing local police officers windows in Minnesota does not have much effect on the war in Iraq.
Now I’m not taking offense to protesting in and of itself. Being able to protest is one of the great things about being American. During the recent Olympics there were protest zones in Beijing, funny thing is the government never issued any protest permits, hence no protesting. Protesting for your cause is just one of the many ways we as American are able to be involved in government, it is very much part of a democracy. Smashing windows of the local Starbucks, Macy’s and Barnes & Noble to end capitalism is nothing more than vandalism and cowardess.

When I was in 7th grade I organized a protest. The school lunches were gross so my friend Anna and I rounded up a few other young liberals in training and decided to take it upon ourselves to require the school to serve us something decent!! We spent the next week making posters, putting together fun little catch phrases ( I can’t think of em!!) and recruiting. It was so THRILLING!! I LOVED it! It felt noble, powerful,very Robin Hood. Then the scheduled day came…guess what?? It was a success! For two whole days at SMS not one school lunch was purchased. Then we got in big trouble and it was all over..but my was it ever worth it. Here is my point..A Few years ago I was retelling this story to my boys, and something occurred to me as I was retelling the story. I suddenly thought about all the kids who I bullied into not buying lunches for those two days. They had to make a decision, be cool (is that not what we ALL want in middle school??) or be the first jerk that blows the whole thing, and has hell to pay from the cool crowd. I grew up in a very poor area, and I’m pretty darn sure that a number of those kids only got that one meal a day and guess what, I deprived them of it. Now that I’m an adult, I see that justice for a middle-class brat in 7th grade looks different for a kid who does not get fed at home. That being said, certain Americans can claim that it is “justice” for a young man to smash the window of a local police cruiser to prove his personal belief, but not see the injustice in that very same “noble” act. Do you think those young men know what real injustice is? Real oppression? Real fascism? I think not.