Pessimistic Politics: The Sweetest Day Riot

Let me tell you, I was pretty darned shocked to hear that Toledo is now involved in the realm of national and international news. When a news tidbit about the Glass City reaches all the way over to Korea where C is stationed, you just have to be pretty proud to be a Toledoan. At least I assume so. I live in Oregon.

For those of you who didn’t hear about it, on October 15, Toledo was the site of a Neo-Nazi rally, a delightful event where parents can take their kids to hear about how other people are inferior to them, sort of like a high school pep rally from Hell. Everyone within the tri-state area was alerted of this event and advised to just ignore the Nazis. So of course everyone listened to the news authorities and stayed home.

Of course not, you idiot! People never listen to the news authorities, even if they’re dispensing common sense advice that the average viewer would never even consider! If the news authorities told everyone to NOT stick flaming Q-tips up their nostrils, you can bet the local emergency rooms would be packed with people with internal nasal burns within the hour.

So a lot of people showed up to the rally to protest the Nazis’ hate message. At least they would have if the rally actually took place. Before it could even begin, the citizens began to riot, attack police and random vehicles, just in case they (the vehicles) contained Nazis. They even burned down a bar, probably because the owner happen to be operating in a city that would allow evil, hateful Nazis to hold a non-violent rally, and decided it needed to go, just in case.

Meanwhile, the physical Nazis themselves were escorted out of the city. This didn’t bother them one bit. In fact, they were declaring victory because they went away proving there point: people of other races are violent, savage and inferior to them. Did I mention that most of the rioters were of African American decent?

I want to stress now that I’m not supporting the Nazi party or their views. In fact, I oppose them completely. My view on the race issue is that it’s totally a social issue, not biological, as the Nazis would have you believe. I think they’re narrow-minded hate-mongers that vie for attention for some sick personal fulfillment. However, the Idiot Award for this contest goes to the rioters, who played right into the Nazis’ hands by trying to destroy them.

Before I go on, let me explain the social domino effect that led to the neo-Nazis believing that they’re right. As I mentioned, I fully believe that the only reason any given race is in an underdog position has to do with where they started out in this country. Considering that many non-Caucasians were at one time looked down upon with malice, it’s amazing any other race bothered to stick around. Nowadays, we’ve made a lot of progress, but with groups like the KKK and Neo-Nazis still stirring up trouble, we still have a long ways to do. I’d include the Black Panthers in this list, but that’s another article. I’m also going to forgo the argument that races technically don't exist, since that clearly doesn’t work in the real world.

Narrowing this down to black African Americans for the purpose of this article, the typical black citizen is descended from slaves forcibly brought over from Africa by slave traders who figured since the African tribes didn’t have guns, they might as well kidnap them and take them to a place they don’t want to be to work for almost nothing for the rest of their lives. The Africans managed to learn the language, despite the best efforts of their white owners, and created their own culture.

Fast forward to the Civil War, which as a consequence rightfully freed the African American slaves. Unfortunately, people still mistreated them because, hey, they were slaves not too long ago; they must have done something to deserve it. Ex-slaves made their way up, though, but the social stigma still stands, which is where a lot of stereotyping and self-fulfilling prophecies start rearing their ugly heads, even in these post-Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X days.

Simply because modern black citizens are told, directly and indirectly, that they’re never going to amount to anything, at least not as much as white people, they begin to believe it. There are many exceptions, of course, and I want to state that black Americans aren’t any lazier than anyone else. Think about it this way: a hick can be president of the United States (and basically has been for the last sixteen years, really), but most likely, he’ll be a hick forever, because it’s easier that way. Why defy convention? When your hopes are high, it’ll just be that much further to fall when you’re let down.

I think that’s what we’re dealing with here. If the roles were reversed and blacks were in the upper crust, you can bet we’d be applying the same stereotypes to people with white skin. The Nazis won’t have you believe this. Other races are bad because of biology, and the riots gave them evidence.

This was their intention from the beginning. They didn’t want a rally so much as an example, and what our freedom-loving rioters did served the purpose very nicely. The normally peaceable city of Toledo suddenly came under a lock-down, with an 8 PM curfew and extra patrols going to every little trouble call. This is what the Nazis wanted, and Toledo citizens went right along with it.

Not that I’m saying I blame them. It’s frustrating and infuriating (though these words don’t even cut it) when a group of out-of-towners come in with their hate and tell you that you’re sub-human and should be treated as such because of the color of your skin. It would make me want to hurl rocks too, but it won’t solve anything. Again, it convinces the bad guys that they’re not bad at all, but rather in the right.

Understand that while I oppose the Nazis’ beliefs, I respect their right to express them in a non-violent way. Yeah, a rally yelling about the inferiority of others doesn’t seem very passive, but in all fairness, the Nazis weren’t the ones hurling the rocks. All the blame will eventually be placed on the Nazi party, though. After all, oppression is all right so long the oppressors are oppressing those who speak of oppressing others for no reason.

I need to mention the non-violent peace rallies, however. Around the city, there were people rallying around peace, uninterested in taking the easy way out. Out of all those involved, save for the rescue crews and police, of course, these people are the heroes of this story. They took the highroad and practiced their First Amendment rights, which is more than I can say for the rioters.

Yes, I am coming down hard on those who served the violence. I should point out that gang members were largely to blame, but everyone who nurtured the violence really deserves a kick in the ass. It pisses me off that these short-sighted idiots handed over some free ammunition to the narrow-minded idiots. Good job, gang!

Again, I can’t really blame the rioters for rioting, but, again, it’s the Nazis’ First Amendment rights that allowed them to be there in the first place, lest their right to free speech be violated, even it’s an unpopular speech. You don’t have to agree with them or even listen to them, but you have to let them speak.

Part of the blame, though, goes to the news media, which really helped make this fiasco a reality. Weeks before the event, they made an announcement that that read, essentially, “The Neo-Nazis, a group who love Hitler and wish, if it were biologically possible, they could have his children, are coming to town. These are people with the same beliefs as those of the Nazi regime who slaughtered millions of people, possibly some of your relatives, and would take out a lot of you if they could. These people will be meeting at THIS PLACE at THIS TIME, so we should just ignore them and let them have a rally about why they hate you.” Serves them right that a certain station got their van wrecked in the riots.

No one announces a church picnic over the news, so I don’t see why they had to do it with these guys. Seriously, I think if the news didn’t mention it, no one would know that it actually happened. “Nazis in Toledo? Huh. Wonder what’s for dinner?”

Nope, instead we got the grand announcement, and now Toledo is in disarray and a bunch of hate-mongers are now sitting on their high horse convinced that they’re right. To keep score: the losers in the integrity games were the news media, the rioters, and the Nazis (though they believe they won, which they did by not throwing rocks, but they knew their presence would cause an uproar). The winners are the police and rescue crews and the peaceful protesters. But really, when things get this bad, no one wins. Except the bad guys.

I just hope some lessons have been learned from all of this. One, we all have a constitutional right to express are views, even if they aren’t popular, though no one else has to listen. Two, violence may be the only language idiots understand, but those who speak it as a first resort look just as idiotic as those who speak it as native tongue. Three, when faced with adversity, some people are still reasonable and have enough dignity to express their views without violence or hate. Four, law enforcement and rescue workers don’t get paid enough. And five, and I think we can all agree with this, the news media really should keep its big mouth shut.