A couple of days ago, I participated in another Back the Blue rally downtown. Greeting us were two or three psychotic people across the street. They cursed at us, threatened us and carried on with bizarre shenanigans. One man kept blocking the street, as he played with his bicycle as if it were a musical instrument. His buddy, a young woman, kept ranting about how her father molested her as a child, as if this was our fault. A young Jewish guy came up to us asking if we believed that black lives matter, and why can’t we just SAY IT?
I told him, “Jewish lives matter.” He grew silent for a moment, muttered to himself “Jewish lives matter,” and shuffled off.
Here’s a short video I shot of the young woman. I didn’t capture the worst of it:
I felt bad for those people. They’re clearly ill, and it got me thinking about how BLM exploits the mentally vulnerable. I was reminded of how, a while back, I was riding past an old folks home, and a bunch of the elderly were standing by the side of the road with BLM signs. Older Americans grew up in a time when the understanding was one could trust the newspapers. There was no “Fake News” back then, at least as far as they were concerned. The printed paper carried authority. Perhaps many of them don’t realize that times have changed.
The psychotic people across from us had, apparently, suffered a lot during their lives. They gain comfort from drugs, which make things even worse. It’s obvious they have a lot of anger, and the police, white people, and the “racist establishment” provide convenient scapegoats.
The honking horns you hear in the background of the above video are drivers who supported us. I would say that a majority of people who drove by either honked in support, or gave us thumbs up. Many Portlanders are fed up with the destruction and chaos; they long for law and order again.
The next day, I saw a man jogging through downtown Portland carrying a large Thin Blue Line American flag. Yesterday, I saw a woman flying one on an overpass. Today, I saw a man displaying one elsewhere.
I don’t know if there’s an actual change of attitude in Portland, but conservatives, pro-Trump people and police-supporters are becoming more bold in expressing their values publicly. That’s a good sign.
