Are the Hippies Back?

Not really, but an American tradition seems to be revived with the current street protests in some U.S. cities, including Boston (Federal Reserve Building).

Started by about 20 young people on New York's Wall Street, the protests have been growing. Protesters cite global warming, hunger, unemployment, and human rights among their concerns, but the theme over-arching these issues is fairness: the widening divide between a few wealthy corporations and the rest of us.

Protest has been part of the American way to address fairness since our rebellion against our (then British) government. It has paved the way for change through our relatively short history, addressing such issues as slavery, women's right to vote, the Vietnam "Conflict," Watergate, and civil rights.

Demonstrations by the people shouldn't frighten and insult us anymore than government by the people (a fairly new concept to our ancestors when they began a protest and developed a revolution from it). I hope public protests will continue to startle us, for therein lies their power.

Granted, some of our American public protests have resulted in harm to people and/or property (Boston Tea Party and killings at Planned Parenthood, for example). But this week's demonstrations appear to be nicely adhering to the principle of nonviolent protest, both by the demonstrators and police. There have been a few isolated altercations, but by and large, these are peaceful demonstrations. Arrests have been made. When people disrupt things, they get arrested, and this is also part of the process.

It's likely that some anxiety will be felt by the wealthy corporations in question, as well as those particular governmental bodies and elected officials who are accused of being under their control. Power and wealth have their "downsides," and scrutiny by the populace is one of them.

Whether we ultimately agree or not with the demonstrators, it behooves us to recognize that they are carrying on one of the oldest political traditions in America. We might also thank them for inserting a pause into business-as-usual by raising  issues we need to examine. They take this truism to heart: to do nothing is to do something. Long live America!