Today in shouting at Jimmy Panetta:

I just want to be super clear on one point: I'm not pro-genocide. You'd think that outside of say Slobodan Milosevic, most people shouldn't have to say that, but here we are. I say this because over the weekend, I helped out at a pro-democracy event and was accused, personally, of supporting mass-murder. And I take issue with this.

Would a mass-murdering monster post a picture of puppies? No. I rest my case.

Pictured: former President Biff Tannen is all
the evidence we need that it can happen here.

The event in question was part of a nation-wide staged reading of an updated version of Sinclair Lewis's play, "It Can't Happen Here." It posits a scenario in which a populist wins the Presidential election and becomes a dictator. It's, you know, topical. Invited to read the piece were some local figures in the arts and progressive politics including Santa Cruz mayor Fred Keeley, and Congressman Jimmy Panetta. Which, great, right? 

If The Lion King taught us anything it's
that we have to stand up against the
ideologues. And that hyenas are bad.

Not everyone onstage or in the room necessarily agrees on everything, but we can all get onboard with the message of the play, right? Like, we're all against fascism? And yet I had to escort five people out of the performance because they stood up and shouted at the readers. Not because they like fascism, but because they have issues with the Congressman and the Mayor. Most of them were relatively cooperative when asked to leave, and I'm sure the boos and jeers of the other two-hundred and fifty attendees helped, but c'mon. I mean, C'mon.

"Mwhrhrhr?"
"Mrrrmrm. Mrrhhrhww!"

I'm not going to get into specifics, partly because they were all wearing KN95's and it was really hard to understand them, and party because I don't want to mischaracterize their beliefs. Just know that my beef isn't with the protestor's cause, it's with the screaming. And the drums. And the megaphone held to the back door of the theatre so that the largely sixty-five and up crowd were struggling to hear the reading. And not for nothing, but I heard from a number of the attendees who said they agree with the protestors, but felt they were making them look bad. 

"Ok, from the top and remember: you're all
complicit in genocide. And a one, and a two..."

I don't want to tell people how to protest, but there's such a thing as preaching to the choir. In fact, they're such a thing as shrieking through a megaphone at the choir so loud and so incoherently that the choir packs up and converts to secular humanism. And I mean, we were putting on an event with the goal of getting people to take action. It might not have been the specific action that these folks wanted, but the world is a garbage fire and we don't need to be at each other's throats. 

I guess what I'm saying is boo. Boooooo. As I escorted one of the protestors out, one of their friends asked how rattled Jimmy Panetta was, which, he wasn't. At all. This kind of thing happens to him all the time and he simply doesn't let it bother him.

Pictured: Congressman Jimmy Panetta seen here being unperturbed.
Which is exactly how he was the entire evening, so great work everybody.