“Polite engagement does not work”: A call to civil disobedience
Apr 4, 2012
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—Mtumba Djibouti
People (that is, citizens other than wind industry shills or community “representatives”—council members, selectmen, etc.) need to understand: your government does not give a damn about you. It is beholden to greed and stupidity.
Polite engagement will not work. They do not care. Your concerns will continue to be ignored.
Gay activists in the USA in the 80s and 90s realized this and started a nearly universally derided and disparaged and mocked movement called Act Up! Although government and media critics all said they were counter productive, the fact of the matter is HIV research only began in earnest after Act Up! crowds began civil disobedience—occupying government buildings, blocking the streets, etc. In the US, the NIH (National Institutes of Health) only began to take AIDS research seriously AFTER their offices were repeatedly occupied by shouting Act Up! crowds.
The result is plain. The government caved, research was done, and HIV is now a largely manageable disease. Even though this disease affects more heterosexuals than gays, the government didn’t give a damn. But AIDs activism forced a change. Not begging or pleading or asking quietly or politely—but agitating.
Governments don’t like unpleasantness. They don’t want attention. They like to operate under the radar.
The squeaky wheel gets the grease.
Comment by Melodie Burkett on 04/04/2012 at 5:53 pm
I agree with you 100%. Our APRIL 3RD Protest in Toronto was very active and colourful, had some good chants, nursery rhyme songs and some press coverage. However, it seems that polite Ontarians from all over Bumpkinville had a line they would not cross. NO CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE! The wind barons attending the FIT ( Feed -IN- Tariff) Forum had the gall to add insult to injury and continuously flash a huge industrial useless wind turbine on a huge L E D Teletron at the Toronto Convention Centre, where they new full well we were having our Protest Rally in the little city park across the street.
Another lady and good friend of mine, who organized this event, said she wanted to throw a rock at it. I suggested an ice cream cone or a heavily mustarded hot dog would have the weight to be lobbed right at it … and stick there. Having ostio and very sore knees, I asked some troopers in our group, if they would go and find a food cart and bring me back two of either/or. (I mean, you could smell the damn food cart! It would not be hard to find it in the big crowd of people!)
Their reaction and answer shocked me. “Well … the police on bicycles have been very nice to us. They protected us. . . .” From who? “We do not want to upset them now, at the end of this lovely rally.”
Well excuse me! I must have just thought this was Toronto, Ontario CANADA. . . . Obviously I was very much mistaken, or confused about my family roots and history.
WAKE UP GOOD KIND FOLKS. . . . WE TRIED GETTING MORE WITH HONEY THAN VINEGAR! THIS APPROACH DID NOT WORK! UNLESS, I AM CONFUSED AND THIS IS A HUNDRED YEAR WAR YOU THINK WE ARE IN AND SOMEHOW FORGOT THAT MOST OF US WON”T LIVE ANOTHER 20 YEARS! Then you have to plan on some form of civil disobedience.
Am I a HOT HEAD or LOOSE CANNON if I throw an icecream cone? I thought it was a very soft weapon indead. I knew it would not hurt the damn teletron!
I was the one that would toss it! I guess I love my family and rural home enough to get a first time charge of civil disobedience.
What else can I say?
Comment by Tracy on 04/04/2012 at 8:10 pm
Hi Melodie,
Your are right. I wish I saw you yesterday. Ontarians continue to allow themselves to be bullied. Should someone pitch a bun and a weiner, we take the risk of being called called hooligans. Wooohooo. So, we don’t dare!? But on the other hand, we have to take McGuinty’s crap?! Let me rephrase, “We continue to be assaulted by McGuinty’s corruption.”
McGuinty will soon find out, we mean business. For me it is a matter of life and death, and financial ruin. I know there are MANY more suffering the same fate. People are dying due to low frequencies. If I should be diagnosed with a terminal illness, I will do whatever is necessary to save others.
A weiner and a bun isn’t going to win the war. Society is lacking integrity and respect. They don’t care. I was appalled, but not surprised, by the ignorance exhibited by the majority of Toronto people yesterday. It appears that the wind hogs laugh at us, and rightfully so.
What goes around will come around and bite them hard in the butt.
One spark will fire up the “cannons.”
Names will never hurt me.
Comment by Melodie Burkett on 04/05/2012 at 9:15 am
Thanks Tracy,
” I will do whatever is necessary to save others”
Thank you ..we know you will..
I looked for you at the Rally too. My husband and I brought the Pig Trough that our son built for this event, heaped full of $100 bills and the three pigs, ( UN-FIT, BAD-FIT and FIT-TO-BE TIED ! ) mowing down on our hard earned but wasted tax dollars. Many good fine brave people were there and I know they are not whimps.
As the rally was ending, feeling so disappointed by the big city indifference, I wanted to “light the cannon” with an ice cream cone and thought it would be brilliant fodder for the press. Just wanted the smart ass and bully ..that “Mother Trough Sucker” who set up that flashing, pulsing telatron wind turbine to get the message that if he wants to play chicken with rural Ontario, he will find out the hard way that we will not let off the throttle. We will not ‘go away’.
We also wanted all of Toronto to know, what kind of criminals McGuinty and Smitherman opened the flood gates to Ontario for.
“the foolsgold Gold Rush”
I suppose the Global Underground Resistance will have to suffice for now.
Did you see the video of the group of elderly folks that chanted over and over “HEY !… TORONTO! …McGuinty’s GOT TO GO ! ” ?
( The green ballons they carried were very effective as well )
We must have been a few blocks up the line and did not see or hear them but saw the video on OWR last night.
ontariowindresistance.org
They were less than a foot from the ‘yellowjackets’ police and about three of those police were getting ugly and yelling back but saw the cameras and backed off. Those folks wouldn’t give an inch! Those folks with the brave hearts are the leaders and they will be the ones not afraid to make a stand to save Ontario. They made my heart soar!
Comment by Harry Makris on 04/10/2012 at 2:49 am
All Around the world
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2bYrCZ5otQ
Stay Safe….
Harry Makris… Australia