Camp Meeker Beat by Tom Austin - December 2019

This is one of those times where my column will no doubt be overtaken by events. As I write this, I’ve just come back from Lucy’s #besthashbrownsincreation Lounge, where the collective townfolk were all abuzz over last night’s events. Those being the late unpleasantness at Westminster Woods. To ward off any such, here’s what I know as of the writing of this column: last night, five miscreants arrived in Westminster Woods garbed in black robes, wearing the “Guy Fawkes” mask made famous, and an object of cult worship among a certain subculture, by the 2005 movie “V for Vendetta”. These yobbos then proceeded to barricade the entrance, presumably in protest against something or someone who happened to be at Westminster Woods. Somebody got the idea that these masked, robed individuals were armed and called 911.

The combined forces of law enforcement, already on heightened alert status because of both the recent fires and the spate of mass shootings nationwide, responded with an all hands on deck police presence, including helicopters, a SWAT team, more than a dozen Sheriff’s cars, and Bohemian Highway locked down from Occidental to Monte Rio. Five individuals were detained, no one was injured, and no weapons were found. Oh, and this just in courtesy of the 11/17 Press Democrat: One of the five has been released. According to the article, he was not on board with what the other four did, convinced the police of same, and has been released. None of the other four were in any way cooperative with law enforcement, to the point of being “physically combative.” A variety of charges are being contemplated, starting with trespassing and resisting arrest and proceeding to more serious offenses. I’m sure more will come out by the time you read this, but that’s what we know as of this writing.

That’s as much hard news as I can provide here. I can only speculate and theorize, and if you know me well enough by now you know I’m going to. This is all my personal opinion, and not the position of anybody but me. Clear? Clear.

First, the fact that no weapons were found leads me to hope that there were no weapons present, and the whole thing was intended to be an aggressive bit of political theater, agitprop as it used to be called. That would lessen the severity of the offensive, although NOT justifying it in any way. Arrived masked, unasked, garbed in black and erecting barricades are all acts of hostile intent: the real Guy Fawkes blew up Parliament! A reasonable individual could conclude that persons capable of the hostile acts above are capable of more. Even on the observed facts, an immediate call to 911, followed by all the active shooter situation responses one has been taught. So, yet once again, our profound thanks go to the first responders who put themselves in harm’s way to keep us safe. A brief and mild inconvenience is a very small price to pay. Job well done.

So what we don’t know is why. That may have come out by the time you read this, but right now, nothing is available other than the garb and the actions. When I ponder those actions, the word that fairly leaps to mind is “sophomoric.” We were all sophomoric once, full of piss and vinegar at having escaped the bottom rung of the social ladder and thinking ourselves pretty sharp in all ways of contending, with the humbling accountability of junior and senior years to leaven our self-righteous arrogance at those others we hold responsible for the world not being to our liking and our half-formed, still raw in the middle concepts of justice. Those on the right usually start devouring Ayn Rand about this time, whose those of a more lefty persuasion consume whatever romantic revolutionary movement has the best fashion sense. The “Okay, Boomer” crowd put Che Guevara posters on their dorm room walls, the Gen Xers partied at Rage Against the Machine shows, and the millennials watched the movie “V for Vendetta” sixteen million times and bought their Guy Fawkes masks and black robes on Amazon.

It’s all the same cosplay, folks: the very definition of “sound and fury, signifying nothing.” My sincere thanks to those many of you who have left your sophomoric ways in the rear view mirror, and have learned to think through problems and find better ways to solve problems that, even if attempted “nonviolently” carry the very real possibility of getting someone killed.

What “better ways” are there? I will leave you with this John Lennon quote:

“When it gets down to having to use violence, then you are playing the system’s game. The establishment will irritate you – pull your beard, flick your face – to make you fight. Because once they’ve got you violent, then they know how to handle you. The only thing they don’t know how to handle is non-violence and humor.”