BUILT STRONG TAKES TIME TO GET IT DONE

Eiffel Tower, 1888

Who doubts the Eiffel Tower wasn’t built strong? That it’s still standing is the only testament it needs.

Data shows it’s the biggest pay to visit site in the world. How strong is that?

Like anything else, it started with a good foundation, and isn’t that the basis for anything built strong, built to last?

Take America, for example.

Here in America, history shows it started as either a business deal, or an attempt to escape religious prosecution.

Depending on who you ask, the historical record turns toward one or the other, but the dates tell the story.

As the story evolves, history is cruel that way.

Today’s American history is evolving in real time with a false narrator telling one story, changing to another story, then grooms the facts for a more convincing story when the first and second don’t find traction.

Take this next section with a grain of salt. As a service vet, I’m not inclined to rag on any commander in chief.

White House Bunker Built Strong

Men who occupy the White House live with certain safety protocols beyond their control. Their security detail assess risks to the boss and, based on their training, make moves to secure him from harm.

If a president gets relocated to a bunker it’s for good reason. If anyone of us were threatened with harm, and we had a panic room, we’d go in and close the door and lock it.

Personally, I’m more of a wuss than I’ve ever been. Sixty-five years is a pretty good stretch based on the male side of my family tree, and I’ve got the gimpy evidence. Apparently my gait is troublesome to watch. Seeing a doctor about it.

You’ve heard the joke, “Doctor it hurts when I do this.”

Doctor: “Don’t do that.”

Pretty funny right up until you decide to either stop doing the hurt, or grind on through.

What to do in a time of protest if you’re not built strong enough to run from the flash bang, gas, and rubber bullets?

The last protest I marched in was #metoo. We walked around Plaza Blocks from Chapman Square to Lownsdale Square and finished with speeches at the World Trade pavilion. Couldn’t have been more peaceful.

Earlier still, I went to the same place for Occupy Oregon.

This piece of writing made it into the Oregonian back when it was a big statewide paper. It lists my former blog, deegeesbb, instead of the current boomerpdx.

Those city block have been busy.

Orloff says several political movements started at the squares and marched across the country. Movements in the past have had around 1,500 participants. “Those squares have been for over a century places where Portlanders and others have gathered for public discussion, for protests, marches, for riots. And some of which have evolved from Portland and moved east all the way to Washington DC. So from a geographic perspective those parks played quite an important role,” he says.

Burnside Bridge For Nine Minutes

This video from twitter shows an overhead of the bridge and the people laying on it in protest for George Lloyd’s death from the knee of a police officer.

It saddens me to tears watching people stand up for the civil rights outlined in the Constitution.

First Amendment. Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

A civil society asks one question: Can you follow the established rules and abide by the law of the land?

If the answer is no, brace yourself. If the answer is yes, but you see problems that need remedies, welcome to America.

The foundation of democracy requires participation, voting, protesting wrongs, and accepting that which you can’t change.

It’s not about looting and shooting and running wild on one side, anymore than it’s about clubbing and attack dogs and gassing citizens on the other.

From Bunker To Bible Shot

What’s going on here, from a history major’s perspective, is a symbolic statement of faith, but a few questions remain.

Is Mr. Trump born again like his Evangelical leaning faith base?

Or is he Episcopalian, the more formal Protestant faith.

If he’s neither, then why make the effort to show up when the park across the street is full of peaceful protestors? Why clear them with police and not words? It’s hard to reconcile gassing the gathering on the way to a house of worship.

Things had cleared up by the time he came out of the house for his power walk.

He doubled up on the spirit-fest by visiting another religious site the next day.

I asked a local Catholic about the feelings between the three groups. Protestants broke off from The Church to reclaim their freedom to worship as they pleased; Evangelicals developed when they found their way on the Protestant road.

As a leader, an American President represents them all. It wasn’t like that in France during the time of Louis XIV when he had soldiers stationed in homes to convert the Huguenots.

Who remembers one of the stories before the American Revolution that had English soldiers garrisoned in private homes? Checking history.

This isn’t England, or France, and no King rules the land. But a more stable foundation could be on the way.

The Eiffel Tower is the role model of foundation? Or Joe Biden?

I’m Ridin’ with Biden for built strong on this one.