There is a small and very vocal minority in America, who feel their angers and frustrations with the world have been justified by the “news” and social media outlets that cater to their wounded views. These so-call news organizations, and certainly the social media players, make a lot of money off these angry people, while the rest of us have to contend with the fallout.
Reading Madi Telschow’s article about being assaulted in a city council meeting is the second act of angry violence I’ve heard this week, though is far worse since it was one male using his age, size the added safety bonus when press is a woman.
And to Ms. Telschow’s musings over whether physical contact would have happened were she bigger, older, much less male: cowards—and let’s not fool ourselves, this was cowardly— almost always hide behind the anonymity of social media, so in person are most likely to be brave only where they feel the most safe. Were you anyone much older, much larger, and certainly if you were male, chances are almost nonexistent anything would have happened.
I’ve not met the new editor, but know she’s young, small, which to a coward means a safe target. Cowards are rarely seen picking on someone their own size, or age or gender; in fact, they pick their battles based on the least confrontation and the greatest chance of no backlash. That the physical part of this confrontation was caught on video—would seem out of the usual character, but, perhaps indicates how justified this person felt in acting in an unjustifiable way.
The second act was someone toilet papering my sister’s house in Woodcreek. No, they have no children in school, and she’s no longer a school teacher, which might have prompted the prank from some of her school kids. The childish act would have been baffling were it not for the chalkboard she has and writes on in the front yard, which had something about rational gun laws— something supported by a majority of all Americans—on both sides.
People slow down to read her messages, and many no doubt applaud, but the vandals the other night didn’t just throw toilet paper over the oaks in the front yard, but erased one side of the board and wrote expletives and a claim implying anyone who believes in rational gun laws are sheep.
A reasonably disputed premise: people who think for themselves aren’t sheep, though those who follow the herd—even a small herd—certainly are, and vandalism for any social, religious or political reason, is a clear sign of the unthinking at work.
It’s my sincere hope Madi Telschow has pressed charges for whatever type of assault this pathetic act constitutes. We cannot turn back the tide of violence by ignoring it, by hoping it goes away or the violent will somehow learn their lesson. What we do know: no consequences for our bad behavior only promotes the idea it either wasn’t bad, or we were meant to get away with it.
No, it seems pretty evident that while extremists—that small group we’ve too long allowed to dominate the dialogue in America—appear to believe in an eye for an eye, the vast majority of Americans believe we meet must violence of any sort with the rule of law. The results are not as immediate, but ultimately make the longest lasting difference.
— Clay Ewing
