Actually, all of the protestors that I saw today were not "generation XYZ" or young people. They were mostly all middle aged to elderly. This looked nothing like the Occupy movement.
From what I saw in news reports, there was a small minority, who shouted threatening things at DLand visitors and looked as if they were out for trouble. My hunch is that there's a mix of protesters, some local, with legitimate grievances and peaceful attitude, others looking for taking advantage of the tensions for getting press (some of whom are likely to be non-local semi-professional trouble makers).
We'll be driving down tomorrow and are determined to not let our fun being spoiled. If we personally encounter protests and riot gear police, I'll explain to my kids that this is a free country, that anybody can stand up for what he or she believes and peacefully demonstrate, but that, just, as they sometimes may see at their school or other places, there will always be occasional bullies who doesn't understand that, though they might not like the rules, those rules protect all of us. By sticking together, we can hopefully put those bullies into their place and don't play their game.
We'll be there Tuesday through Saturday, and I saw that protests are mostly planned for weekends, so I hope that I won't have much explaining to do, but I found that any situation can be used for teaching (in this case civics 101, the importance of social contracts, figuring out how to peacefully work together despite differing views and perspectives, and the challenges of that goal that come from some people's self-righteous arrogance--on all sides). Let's hope that reason and justice prevail (pending the official investigation of the police incidents rather than jumping to conclusions and hurting people, either physically or emotionally, in the process). I am such an optimist about people (despite worldwide evidence to the contrary). I trust that, if those of us who care about the world work together, we truly have the potential to make any place the happiest place on earth. If that makes me naive, so be it.
Although our views don't totally align I understand what you are saying.
That is the attitude that we need, I believe. If we'd all believe the same and would be the same, the world would be a rather dull place. But even with differences in opinion, I passionately believe that we can understand, care about, and respect one another.
The picture in post #14 brings back memories, semi-retirement is kinda nice. All of that riot gear is Hot, Uncomfortable, and Heavy, I do not miss it one bit...
I am in awe of the courage and dedication of the vast majority of the members of our law enforcement. In the toughest situations, when most of us try to get away, you guys walk the other way. Thank you for taking the heat for us. Just want to make sure that, when I talk about racism in police departments, I am very aware of the fact that those are isolated incidents. It's a tough job for internal investigators to tell rookies' misjudgment in scary situations that require split second decisions apart from bad apples in the department, so I hope they'll be doing a good job with that.
All of that said, I'm so glad that we'll be staying on the DLH side! I feel so sorry for the managers and employees of the hotels on Harbour Blvd. Can you imagine how concerned they must feel right now? Too sad.
