Occupy Your Own House

Thanks to the Hurricane Irene, and then the recent winter storm, a friend’s son found his mother-in-law occupying his house.  Since time in memorial, spouses have found their mothers-in-law occupying their houses.  Both my grandmothers occupied are house at one time, though (mercifully), not both at the same time.  My maternal grandmother occupied my bedroom.  I was not a happy camper since I had to share my younger sibling’s bedroom.

That’s what you do when you’re family.  But even family can wear out their welcome.  The Occupy Wall Street pests wore out their welcome the second day of their “occupation.”  Yet officials everywhere from Manhattan to Oakland to London have dithered in their responsibility to the general public and allowed the protestors to continue.  The Occupy St. Paul’s Cathedral pigeons will be allowed to occupy the church grounds right through the Christmas holidays.

In Oakland, the police gave the protestors, who were bused in, a police escort into the city so the OWSers could wreak havoc unmolested.  A driver who somehow managed to find himself trapped in the war zone, finding his Mercedes-Benz blocked, finally gunned his engine and ran down the protestors.  After questioning the driver, the police let him go, which sent the OWSers into an even greater frenzy.  They broke shop windows and have shut down the Port of Oakland, the 5^th or 6^th busiest port in the United States.

Officials fear a “Kent State” moment.  The truth about Kent State, though, is that the students fired first.  Nor was the riot initially about the Vietnam War; it was about beer.  The students, celebrating the end of the semester in May (of 1971), were rampaging through the streets of the town, breaking windows and generally causing trouble.  The mayor shut down the bars.  So the students really began rioting, burning cars and fighting with the police who tried to arrest them.

The students returned to their dorms to sleep it off.  In the meanwhile, some anti-war protestors heard about the unrest.  “Never let a good crisis go to waste.”  The agitators stirred the bunkered students into another protest, ostensibly about the War (although it was really about the booze, not the bombs).  The students started throwing rocks and bottles at the riot police.  The governor then called in the National Guard.

The students then threw rocks and bottles at the National Guard.  And then someone on the side of the protestors produced a gun and fired, although they deny it vehemently.  The guards fired back and the rest is revisionist history.

OWS insists its gatherings are peaceful, but the evidence of violence is mounting against them.  These riots are reminiscent of the riots of the Sixties.  This isn’t the first time that a port has been closed down.  However, riots should have been ancient history by now.  Let that be our lesson.  Thugs, thieves, deadbeats and beatniks will never give peace a chance.

Neither will mothers-in-law.  What will happen when these people start occupying our homes and property?  Will we have the strength to stand up to them and tell them to get out?  Will the authorities back us up, like the Oakland cop who let the driver go, or will we be sent to jail for defending our property?  Will we be told to just let them stay there, that they’re not hurting anyone?  We’d better start thinking about standing up for ourselves now, while we still can.  Once you let a pest invade your home, they’ll multiply and you’ll never be rid of them.  Our society disdains violence.  That may be the right philosophy.  But it’s not very helpful when the only way you can get rid of a pest.  Even a fly will gladly zoom out the door if you show it to him; we’re not going to get rid of these flies so easily.

We’re going to have to swat them.