Hey. It's France!

HEY, IT'S FRANCE! 

Have you seen the reports of the rioting?  Paris is protesting, people are being arrested (not many actually).  And believe it or not, it is over antiquated and inadequate schools.  Here in the States, we don't care about our public schools.  We give our money to charter and religious schools.  Those in public schools, especially metro schools, are pretty much forgotten about.  Iowa's national standing was once at the top - no longer.  You know our metro schools still now have children that speak different languages, are of different cultures.  If you know history, even a little, public schools in the US were thought necessary to acculturate the millions of kids coming here.  You should be able to see the relevance of that.

But what is interesting about Paris are the protests and the reaction to them.  I spent almost two weeks in Paris a few years ago.  Paris is not a place you just spend a day.  While there, I was reading a history of Paris.  As we wandered around the city, I noticed that all the trees lining the streets were of the same species and the same age.

And then it occurred to me,  every forty years  or so they cut all of the trees down for barricades.  This made me smile.  In France the government is afraid of the people; the people are not afraid of the government.  This continues and it is good.  Here, in the United States, we the people are afraid of the government.  Example:  Black Lives Matter.  Once that settled down, the Iowa state government, for one, passed all sorts of new crimes to make sure it never happens again.  Protesting is good in France, bad in the US and it should not be.

Just as an aside, as we were being driven to our lodgings from the airport,  our Algerian driver took us through the Algerian part of Paris.  At that very moment Algeria was playing in the World Cup.  We were late.

But back to riots.  I personally think a good riot is necessary once in a while - it's exercising your rights of free speech and assembly.  If you don't think it's ok, look at the constitution, it says we can say what we want to say and do it in a crowd.  And besides, our various governments need shaken up occasionally - get people excited - have a little fun - something different from daily routine.

You may not be aware, just a few years ago Paris was full of John Deers blocking traffic and causing all sorts of problems and it wasn't the vintage tractor parade we have to suffer through out here in the farm belt; it was a tractor riot.  The farmers were irritated and showing it.

Our state legislators, if any should actually read this, will seriously  disapprove of this sort of citizen involvement in affairs that they, our elected representatives, should have attended to, believing that they know what is best while actually being clueless.

So let's show a little life, democracy is more than just showing up to vote.  But I would appreciate it if you didn't cut any trees down.

Richard E H Phelps II

Mingo