This morning as I was painting my sign for tomorrow’s protest the news broke that Greg Abbott will be sending the national guard to the capitol as a show of force and to “protect” the citizenry, apparently spurred by rumours of vicious organized frogs and rebellious butterflies and unicorns. What timing.
I have been to every capitol protest this year, and I can tell you personally there has never been a feeling of danger, threat, or intimidation at any of them. Anger yes, but properly aimed at those whose attention we are trying to get, not at the cops forced to watch while we cause no trouble. It’s bad enough that they don’t need them, but his timing for having his authoritarian Faschion show will coincide with one of Austin’s biggest annual events, the Formula One U.S. Grand Prix. This race draws thousands of foreigners (rich very rich ones) and celebrities to town for the weekend, in addition to millions of television viewers world wide. Formula One has the largest viewership of any sport in the world, with over 827 million fans who, on average, tune into races at the rate of 70 million per event.
Won’t it be a great look if someone lights the fuse that Abbott is placing by putting guard troops in close proximity to a crowd of No Kings day protesters. We have already seen how troops without restraint or accountability (especially the masked and badge-less ones) can be triggered to violent overreaction at the slightest provocation. And we don’t usually know after the fact whether it was started by someone genuinely a part of the protest group or just an agitator who infiltrated the crowd just to stir up trouble.
And most of the visitors who come for the race weekend spend just a couple of hours a day at the track for the practice sessions, and for qualifying, which happens on Saturday. The rest of the time they spend exploring and experiencing what an interesting, beautiful, unique city and people Austin has to offer. The rally will probably draw many of them out of curiosity, because it will likely have a typical Austintatious-like carnival atmosphere. If you’ve ever been in an Austin crowd, then you know if can be a colorful, flamboyant one. Just think how it will look if race attendees or worse, F-1 employees, officials, or possibly even a driver getting hurt would make us look on the world stage. Foreigners hurt in the heart of a red state? Can you imagine how big of a black eye it could give to our country? (Maybe even worse than what our pResident is currently giving us!) It would probably get more international attention (of the wrong kind) than at any other city that’s having one.
But bad actors can turn things ugly at the drop of a hat. I hope it won’t happen tomorrow. Please, if you attend one, remember to be peaceful, loud, peaceful, proud, peaceful, enthusiastic, peaceful, patriotic, and, above all, peaceful. Some good guidance I’ve seen suggested here on KOS is that if someone near you starts a violent act, then get everyone around you to sit down, don’t react and let the provocateurs stand out so the cops can arrest them. If you see violence, don’t join in, because then you’re working for their side.
But no matter what, if you can, GO!
