Iskra is the Russian word for "spark" and not coincidentally the name of a socialist newspaper in Russia at the end of the 19th Century. The word popped into my mind this morning when I saw a picture of a student protest at Murphy High School. In Mobile. This week I've seen two videos from other high school student protests, places, that when I saw what they were doing, I characterized as atypical.
In one, a man was arrested for bothering a student group but not before the kids manhandled him and his resultant arrest for assault. In another, an elderly man stopped his vehicle and tried to cower a group of teenage protesters. He fared horribly. They did not cower. These kids have better things to do and it at once gives me hope and also fills me with a sort of angst.
I've been where they are.
I got out of the service in 1968. I was politically conservative. I moved to Panama City, grew my hair long, and ended up meeting a bunch of folks from Alabama who had started a music emporium somewhat akin to the Fillmore East with some of the largest regional bands and complete head shop. (I was one of the first Panama City Beach airbrush artists).
Our hair long, the developing drug problem, caused the authorities to center on us as somehow having brought this blight to their community. We were continuously harassed. They would arrest all of us on the weakest of arguments, even arresting our band while on break. Bond money was part of our budget. I couldn't imagine that this was happening.
It culminated on Labor Day. They busted our house, which we used as our headquarters. On the television we saw the riots at the Chicago Democratic Convention. That was my spark. I joined the rebellion.
We've lived through this before - the sense of outrage over change, the willingness to recklessly retool the system, our economy, our way of life, this jackboot psychosis - is Nixon 2.0, but stupid. Nixon knew when to fold them. These folks marry their ignorance with the naivety that what they plan is simple, just impose your will; my way or the highway.
These kids are emblematic. It is filtering down to them and to places that are normally complacent. Dazzle them with bullshit only goes so far.
