by Don Franks
Uninclined to try and fathom the myriad various arguments about covid and its dangers and treatment, I’ve lazily trusted the government with this one.
Their restrictions have in my view saved lives, although at what overall social cost we have yet to see. Deferment of other serious illness diagnosis and treatment, social, mental and economic costs. It will take some time for the balance sheet to come through.
Being old and asthmatic I’ve done what’s been asked, taken the shots, worn the masks, stayed home, washed my hands.
Several of my good friends have concerns about the vaccine and the mandate. I don’t share their concerns but, who knows who’ll be found right in future years. I’ve totally bought into several issues in my life to later find they had little or no basis. We’ve all just got to try and find our way.
Amidst all the shit going down today I had this reaction.
“I don’t share the protestors’ concerns but am disgusted with so many former protestors cheering on the police. And abusing the demonstration in the way that they have. These are ordinary working people with grievances. The government could have left the tents alone, they would not have stayed forever.”
As scores of protestors have been accused of all sorts of things and arrested I stand by my statement.
As a person regularly participating in many protests, strikes and occupations since 1968 I have some idea about this sort of struggle. I recognise and respect the determination and bravery anti mandate protesters showed today. The bulk of them are ordinary working folks, stepping outside of their normal day to day life to make a point about something concerning them deeply.
Disowned by every party in parliament they will not bow down. Our government’s unnecessary crackdown today will only strengthen these people’s resolve.
Redline 
I could relate to a sizeable chunk of what you had to say here Don. Mostly around my own simplistic approach to the pandemic (stay home, wear a mask, wash hands, get jabs) and the same background in a long term engagement in protest.
I’ve certainly been checking my own reaction to the current protest. It’s a strange position to be in, as I am not actively involved for once. I’ve noticed that the corporate media is just as biased and hostile to these protests as any other. It also seems the cops are just as rough with these guys as with the Left. It has to be recognised that there is a diversity of motivations and perspectives amongst these protestors, as there always are. Many as you say, are ordinary people. It definitely takes great resolve to stand by your views to the point of being arrested.
Having said all that, I can’t overlook the fact that nearly all their positions are ones I strongly oppose. So ultimately I don’t care if these ordinary people have taken time to do something they care about when I myself don’t care for those things. I don’t support the police or government but neither can I sympathise or respect others who are my opponents. I don’t wish them well and won’t fall for the false dichotomy of accepting either side. I guess my position is “A plague on both their houses”.
You say you don’t support their positions, but don’t state what they are. What is it exactly you don’t support? A loose coalition issued a list of demands today (with the preface: “We are a Decentralised Autonomous Community so we cannot be targeted.”) Do you know what those demands are?
By the way, thanks to Redline for providing some commentary on this extraordinary happening which began a week or so ago from a single facebook group set up by people who weren’t very sure how to proceed, and are certainly not fascists They’ve achieved something huge whether you agree with them or not. The slience from other leftists and the anarchists has been deafening.
It seems the ordinary people know how to fight for what they believe in, do the left anymore? The live stream has been hugely entertaining, and if people dancing to Bob Marley and scrubbing a swastika off a statue is fascism then I need to revisit my textbooks
Thanks for posting copasetic64. Redline does not have a fixed position on the aims of the protesters at parliament. Despite some deliberate obfuscation from mainstream media, its fairly clear that the main demand is removal of vaccine mandate. Redline contributors have a range of views about covid response.Yes, accusations of fascism, from some who should know better, are unfounded.
Here is why I am getting extremely suspicious of the purpose covid is serving:
1) I watched a registered nurse testify (I need to find out before whom) that she went to NYC in April of 2020 to work and was shocked that she and her fellow nurses were not permitted to treat people with covid. They could not even give them ibuprofen let alone steroids, both of which bring down fever and inflammation. She said she saw no one die of covid, only die of medical neglect and malfeasance.
2) Dr Brownstein, a superb doctor in Michigan, U.S.A., posted nebulizer protocols for those sick with covid and was told very quickly to take them down by the Food & Drug Administration, a federal agency that is completely in bed with the pharmaceutical industry.
3) A doctor in Maine was suspended from practice for treating people with covid effectively as shown by a letter written to a local paper by a woman whom she cured.
Like Don, I have done all the basic protections and have not gotten sick, but then I don’t work at a grocery store and have people spewing on me. Why is the U.S. government so gung-ho to have people sicken and die? Why weren’t patients being treated with traditional drugs in NYC in 2020? Why the effort to stop doctors who do something other than maim and butcher patients from pursuing their good practice?