You got that right. And now that I am in government I see how incidious it is and how the bureaucracies run the show, not our elected officials. At some point we say enough. Is it now? I don’t know. We have very good people trying to do it the “right” way. But even doing things the right way doesn’t seem to matter. So, here we are.
My thoughts about disobeying authorities are formed by history and some experience as a journalist.
If someone is going to do it successfully they will have to carefully and quietly plan it.
Martin Luther King, it appears to me, rightly figured out the government had infiltrated his movement in the unsuccessful campaign in Albany, GA in 1962. The FBI informants and the Kennedy Administration worked to undermine King’s every move there.
King went to a secluded place with trusted aides and planned out what would be the pivotal event in the history of the 1960’s civil rights protests, the Birmingham demonstrations.
When I covered the Operation Rescue protests at the abortion clinics in the late 1980’s I decided to deal with them ‘outside the office’ since the big open newsroom I worked in had plenty of liberal ears listening.
I also told them to keep their protests secret and call me at home when they came down. I knew in general when they would act because of the times abortions were performed.
The local police had apparently infiltrated their meetings and had advance knowledge of their moves based on the feedback I was getting from the news staff I worked with.
Getting back to this Oregon thing I have no doubt the FBI is already ‘on the ground’ in the midst of the people there with informants sprinkled among the crowd.
Also some of those folks involved may be a bit under the influence of drugs and I have a broad definition of drugs that includes prescription medications, pornography and more.
I’m saying some of them are crazy, but as you know MLK had a notorious sex life that Jackie Kennedy was aware of because of the FBI spying. She called King a ‘despicable man’ who was ‘arranging orgies’.
We honor that guy with a national guy in a few weeks, so who am I to ‘judge’.
May the Creator help you and me to remain sober and sane in the midst of this situation and find something right to say or do at a time of the Higher Power’s choosing.