Peace Project Attacked

Last night the Healdsburg Peace Vigil came under attack from a group of tourists or perhaps organized tea-baggers. The vigil has been treated well through the years by local people and by the police. Incidents have occurred before, mostly with visitors. These particular visitors commented inaccurately on the sizes of the folks' asses, their sexual orientations, their employment status, and so on. When it looked as if violence might start, a vigil leader called the police, and the small mob left.

The incident was witnessed by a Santa Rosa blogger, in town for dinner. Perhaps I shouldn't name her. She wrote the following:

Thursday night was my husband's birthday. I took him to dinner in Healdsburg, California. Healdsburg is what is known as a destination town in Sonoma County. People come for the Michelin rated restaurants, the wonderful square with shops and for the surrounding wineries. It's a short drive from our house, so off we were to a lovely evening.

Every Thursday, the Healdsburg Peace project holds a vigil for peace on the square. People drive by and honk and many just walk by. This Thursday there were about ten people, with signs supporting single payer insurance, a "never again Hiroshima", Pace flags, American flags and some Green flags. This group has been holding the vigil since before the Iraq war, every Thursday evening.

I had seen this group before, but I am from Berkeley where there has been a peace vigil for over thirty plus years on the western side of the campus at UC Berkeley. It's a peace vigil, you would think it's not anything controversial. If you don't agree, you walk by. But, not tonight.

A group of wine country tourists, in the 35 year old range, was walking by across the street and we hear some screaming, I don't know how it started. I am getting used to boisterous "wine tasters". The shouters were wearing an assortment of t-shirts with Philladelphia teams, bars. Maybe they were from there, maybe not. But clearly, they were not locals.

We heard some bits of the shouting, repetitive shouting at the vigil holders:

"Get a job"

" We pay our way, we pay our taxes"

"Get off the streets"

" Fucking socialists"

Men, women, shaking their fists, turning red and screaming at these folks who are doing something that is legal and in their town. The vigil holders were quite restrained. The mob crossed the street and went into their faces.

The vigil holders stood up to them and one of the mob guys, pulled away a woman who was the most aggressive and they walked away shaking their heads and fists. Their faces were contorted from anger.

The bullies had this look on their face of having done something virtuous -- a gleeful, high five we kicked their butts look. I had my phone, but did not think of taking pictures of the brutish expressions on their faces. I cussed at them as they walked by and glared at them. There were not enough people on the square to shame them.

There was something grotesque about them calling the man holding the "Hiroshima, Never Again" sign all kinds of vulgar names in the name of patriotism and America.

Is this an outcome of the sanctioned RNC mob tactics? Or, is this particular group not related? Am I making a connection where there is none? I don't think I am. There was something evocative of the tone in those televised meetings.

When they left, I was disturbed and agitated. My husband tried to calm me to consider who they were, just a hodge podge, probably drunk, bunch of people that have no political consciousness. But I don't think so, I think they are emboldened by Rush and the others who are pushing them. They are the by product of the fanaticism.

I was shocked at their collective lack of shame. The fact that they had no internal control, that some smaller contingent of their group did not try to pull the main culprits away earlier.

I am convinced that people have no respect for the social rules of behavior in a democracy. The rules that give the people of the "peace vigil" the right to hold a peace vigil without being bullied and threatened, were of no importance to the mob. It was as if I was watching a live flame war.

I have heard people say that commentors on the internet are rude because they are anonymous, that most people would not act like that in public. Well, today from what I saw, those barriers of behavior are gone. They do act that way.

The same applies to the mobs opposing health care reform that are attending the town hall meetings and turning them to town hells. Joan Walsh asks who are the real brownshirts?

A moonlit August night, turned into an ugly shouting match by a group emboldened by the likes of Rush and other propagandists. Who will stop them? The culture wars are not finished, they are here, and they are gonna get uglier because people benefit from the artificial divisions.

On the drive home I was thinking of the movie Cabaret, the summer scene where the brownshirts start singing and Michael York asks the following question to one of the men in uniform: "Do you still think you can control them?"

Once you start a mob, once you fuel a mob, feed a mob, embolden a mob, how can you control them?