[Leica] Vancouver riot

[lrzeitlin at gmail.com (Lawrence Zeitlin)]

Ted,

I largely agree with the sympathies you expressed in your rant about the
Vancouver riot but I think you made an unfortunate choice of words when you
laid much of the blame on DO GOODERS. I would much rather be known as a DO
GOODER than a DO BADDER.

Hitler, Stalin, and Saddam Hussein were do badders, Genghis Khan was a do
badder. Mother Teresa, Mahatma Gandhi, Franklin Roosevelt, and perhaps
Ronald Reagan were do gooders. Richard Nixon started out being a do gooder
and became a do badder. The parents of the hooligans who trashed Vancouver
were do badders. Those that tried to restore order were do gooders.

Despite your perception of Vancouver as an oasis of peace and tranquility,
violent protests and riots have taken place in virtually every major city in
the world. No venue is immune. The trigger may be a sports event, a
political disagreement, an unfortunate accident, or even a rumor, but the
fuel for the riot is the accumulated feeling of discontent and the rioter's
perceived injustices. I have been an unwitting bystander in "civil
disturbances" in Chicago, Detroit, New York, Paris, New Delhi, and Los
Angeles. All had different triggers but the mechanism of the disturbance was
the same. Smashing, looting and violence were the norm. Molotov cocktails
are easy to make.

Larry