That Song by Buffalo Springfield, or, The Myth of Sisyphus on the Floor of a BART Station

Blogger's Note:  I will not respond to comments to this post.  Rip me a new one on your own.

Ah, yes, Monday, and time for another set of protests from our friends at Anonymous or No Justice No BART.  I feel for commuters.  I feel for the general public.

I feel like more and more of my posts these days should open with an apology.  This one won't.  I have been reading all kinds of input on the BART protests since July, and last week I almost thought that I wouldn't have a desire to write this post--Anonymous came up with something closer to making sense than anything else they had previously tried by trying a "Spare the Fare Day" with the gates, but that wasn't exactly what I was thinking of.  (And it didn't exactly work out for them, either.)

I should probably take a couple of steps back for a second.

First of all, I'm going to dwell on "Moneyball" again for about the length of a sentence or two.  Reading "Moneyball" taught me that the best player in baseball has accomplishment, proven experience of winning through small steps, and not just sex appeal and "heart."  The best baseball player has proven himself:  in high school, in college, in the minors.

So, Anonymous?  No Justice No BART?  Let's remove your "heart" and media sex appeal from the equation and consider this situation.

Ready?  Show me your accomplishment.

You need to hit BART with competition.  Period.  I don't know what that "competition" is, exactly; chartered buses over the span?  But make it easier, sexier, to NOT ride BART, with a viable alternative other than sitting on the bridge.  You need to hit BART in the moneybags.  Make it sexy to not...ride...BART.  I'm sure there are corporate enemies of BART who would love to fund their downfall.  To convince these enemies to back your better idea you do need a very important trait, though:  professionalism.

You can demonstrate, yes, but you can't demonstrate professionalism.  That's your biggest problem.  It's like a batter that can't get on base.  "Look!  I can hit!" you say, but you're only hitting pop-ups and fouls.  You need to get on base.

Tell me, how professional do you look with a bunch of masks you won't keep on ("Whaddo I wanna wear a mask for when I can be on TELEVISION???")?  How rational do you look yelling in the face of cops who can't change the policy or action of one of their fellow men in arms while they're standing in formation protecting the public?  How rational do you look shutting down traffic on Market Street and angering the public?  Who, in fact, are you saving?

It's too late to save those men who died.  And if BART really wanted to stop these cases of mistaking guns for tasers, they would have already felt enough public pressure to do just that.  But they won't if the only protesters and media bring the drama.  Things won't change until you have the public overwhelmingly on your side.  And right now the protesters and media have the wrong poster children. The public is dismayed, yes.  Outraged?  Nope.  The BART police haven't shot the wrong person yet.  Will they?  The odds are there.  It just doesn't look inevitable.

Bottom line:  if these protest groups want to change BART, they have to get the public behind them.  I don't care what right is being violated here--you can't accomplish anything without the public behind you.  (Hint:  Getting innocent bystanders/commuters hurt or killed in your protests won't do it.  Just sayin'.)  If you don't get the public behind you, BART looks like the sane one.  I'm not saying they ARE the sane one, they just LOOK like it.  That is all you need to continue your actions.

I can show you calm, rational, effective grass roots movement.  It was called Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign.  It was called the Civil Rights movement of the 60's (on the minority side, not on the law enforcement side).  Did both of those movements hit all of their targets?  Nope.  But they made a DAMN FINE START.  I'm not sure what Anonymous's and No Justice No BART's objectives are.  I'm sure there are printed documents somewhere (knowing our luck written in crayon left-handed), but the point is, if your public doesn't know from your actions what your goal is, then you're just wasting your breath.

Sadly, some of those protesting don't even know the particulars.

You can protest smarter.

You protest smarter?  Hell, I'll join you.  I'll write your demands.  I'll meet with BART myself.

That's not the goal, though, is it?  The goal, ultimately, is to get on camera, isn't it?  And that's all the commitment you want.  If you wanted actual change, you would have a message your public could get behind once that camera is on you.

But what do I know?  I'm just counting stats in the cheap seats at the ballpark on this one.

P.S. - This song is the inspiration for the title of today's post.  My apologies to Albert C.