Music To March By; Rat F***er Blues; That Gun Thing…

Lots to tend to and think about these days as we wield our considerable power and clout to re-shape the landscape of the 24/680 and make our corner of California a more agreeable place in which to live.

None of that will happen, of course, but we can dream. We have found that for every person open to civil discussion there are three behind them convinced the only way to prove they are right and you are wrong is to pound you into a gum spot in the street.

Managing to sidestep invitations to participate in high-noon, public confrontations at the local Starbucks we dodged, disarmed and deleted challenges from bicep-tatted dudes in trucker caps who made their distaste for us known this past week.

Our offense? Covering in the most minimal of ways significant local gatherings of people opposed to how their government is conducting the people’s business. That, according to our detractors, is giving “free publicity” to “libtards and traitors.”

On the few occasions we engaged the puffed up Patriot Bros who’d decided we needed to be killed we tried to tell them that we’re a news outlet and not covering the biggest story in the land and – judging by the number of people in the street – in the 24/680 would have meant turning in our ACLU, Audobon Society, and Society of Professional Journalists membership cards.

They were, as you might expect, okay with this. We told ’em ‘no, uh uh, ain’t gonna happen, compadre,” we’re in the news biz and if there are people out in the street we’re gonna be there, too, backing this verbal haymaker up with past stories we’d done on patriots and non-libtards they might know. Apparently, they didn’t get those links, most of them signing off after uttering a few more choice insults.

To be clear: if it moves and is out of the ordinary, we’re going to try and cover it.

That said, we have a bone to pick with the thousands of folks who turned out in Walnut Creek and other towns and cities up and down the 24/680 Corridor over the weekend. If this is going to continue, and it looks like it is, you’re going to need better music and march chants.

We mean, a lot of the stuff we were hearing out there has been around since Pete Seeger (no offense, Pete, love ya babe) and is sounding a little dusty. How about a few instruments and an updated playlist? A little Sam Cooke? The Byrds and “Deportee?” Creedence? Green Day? Better yet, trot out the The Pogues or Dropkick Murphy’s – now, the Irish excel at holding a street demonstration. We should know, we’re Irish and we’ve been in the thick of it when the dustbin lids start clanging. Think about it… we can’t handle “Whose streets? Our streets!” much longer.

While you’re here and (apparently) invested in this screed, so far, allow us to address the level of organized Rat Effery aimed at shaping the respective narrative these days. Since we’re a digital offering often delivering news and updates in real time we were taken aback by the number of armed and ready “readers” we encountered out there with memes and exclamation point-heavy graphics – all directed our way within seconds of our post. The usual lag between a post and reader response was eradicated, a flood of similar looking posts flooding the comment threads in seconds instead of the usual minutes.

If you participated you know that there were thousands of these mixed with hundreds of legitimate comments from readers we recognized and any hope of moderating the thread was akin to one of the band members trying to save the Titanic as those watertight compartments failed one by one.

We were ready for some of it, not being babes in the woods, but at one point we looked at our panic-stricken developer and asked: “Where the hell are all these coming from?” Most were thinly spoofed, from accounts outside the area or country, usually with one or two followers and no real history – and each carefully weighted to swing a certain agenda. Stopping them meant closing out the comment thread and inviting more threats from Patriots looking for an excuse to scream “censorship! censorship!” and invite us out for more open-air calisthenic sessions.

It’s a conundrum. One we’re still working out – but some folks proved themselves to be vile, hateful people this week and that just ain’t gonna fly.

Also affirmed this week was the affinity many seem to have for weaponry and firing same at people, a belief we cannot think would be held if they’d ever seen what bullets actually do. Instead, however, people suggested more range time for police who opened fire on a man who pointed a gun at them during a traffic stop and others maintained the world would be a safer place if everyone was carrying. This suggestion made us shift as uneasily as that buff ICE dude who looked down to see Kristi Noem’s M4 sweeping his head during their photo op. We’ve been places where everyone was packing and we were nervous as cats the whole time. Some of them went off in our presence – both the people and the guns, so can’t say we’re behind the Archie Bunker Approach.

It doesn’t work, and we would offer as anecdotal evidence yesterday’s tragedy in Antioch, where a 3-year-old found a weapon in the home and, playing with it, sent a bullet into his head. A 3-year-old. We’ll just leave that, and this column, there.

Thanks for your time. See you in the streets…