People are threatening Carroll Fife. Cat Brooks feels threatened. I feel threatened.
This crap has got to stop. We can differ politically from each other, without it spiraling into violence.
The violent rhetoric is coming from both far Left and far Right. The far Left is obsessed with fomenting revolution in America. The far Right is obsessed with fomenting violence against progressive activists like Fife. In post-Jan. 6 America, the last thing we need is for anyone to be suggesting acts of terror and revolution.
This doesn’t mean we can’t go at each other tooth-and-nail when it comes to political differences. “Politics ain’t beanbag,” goes the old quip. People with legitimate political differences get worked up, angry, defensive and accusatory with each other—and that’s okay. It may be unpleasant, but that’s how politics works. At the end of the day, we stop screaming at each other and meet for drinks. On the other hand, the instant somebody suggests an act of violence, we have to move very quickly to silence them.
I’m now being accused of being a “vile racist” person because I oppose Brooks and Fife in their anti-cop agenda and support for some fringe groups who call for violent revolution. But I have to remind people that I have never called for or supported physical violence or mayhem and I never will. Having been a victim of violence, I abhor it. Early on in the life of the Coalition for a Better Oakland, I made sure that someone who was secretly a member of a rightwing militia group, who had sought membership without disclosing his affiliations, was not permitted to join. I will not permit CBO to become a false front for those sorts of people. Some of them have apparently been saying very troubling things to Fife. They must be stopped. They must be rejected. They must be arrested and investigated.
On the other hand, the calls for violent revolution in America must also be stopped and rejected by progressives. Sadly, that is not always the case. I’m mentioning no names here and including no links to tweets (although I could), but some powerful politicians in Oakland are retweeting calls for violent revolution that include instructions on how to plan for it and not get caught (no phone calls or emails, word of mouth only). This, too, absolutely must stop. There can be no excuses for even the remotest appearance of supporting violent revolution. I call on Oakland’s progressives to stop it.
I may be old-fashioned, but I continue to believe we can all get along. I suppose it’s because I remain at heart a love child of the Sixties. I marched, once, with Dr. King. There is some argument over his legacy, with militant progressives maintaining he grew more inclined in his final years toward violent revolution. But the Dr. King I revered 50 years ago and still do was the nonviolent Dr. King who had studied Gandhi and preached a gospel of passive resistance. That will always be the Dr. King that inspires me.
So I say to the progressives, throw your best criticism at me if you want to. Dissect my statements and demolish them intellectually or factually, if you think you can. And I’ll do the same with you. But let us renounce violence in all its hideous, twisted forms. I just did, on the record. Will you?
Steve Heimoff