Wednesday, July 06, 2005

Getting territorial

It's amazing how passionate I can get when someone starts tearing up my turf. I know that that 90% of the protestors are onto a good thing, as last Saturday showed when 200,000 marched through Edinburgh without incident. Now we have the muppets in the black uniforms and clown outfits throwing park benches at Police and starting riots. It was bad enough when I saw the footage of Edinburgh. Princes street gardens was getting turned into a ploughed field and there were organised anarchist gangs striking at key spots to maximize violence. Now I turn on the TV this morning and the same is happening in Stirling only 15 miles away. When I saw these guys smashing up a residential area and building barricades (which only blocked in the poor locals) I was about ready to jump into my car and head up to give them a kicking. Everybody's is quick to jump on the Police, but seeing the way that they were being attacked, with such venom and hatred, I'm surprised they were so restrained. Tell me, what kind of peace protestor trashes a Burger King on a retail Park full of young kids and families. I haven't felt so angry in a long time these guys only have their own personal agenda which they seek to impose on the rest of us and it stinks. The fact that they probably come form all over Europe makes me angrier still, there's a territorial gene which kicks in when oustiders threaten home. I don't know if these feelings are what you would call very "christian", but I think what I am most angry at is the injustice that the anarchist groups show, blatant disregard or compassion for anyone else. It's easy to take moral ground and proclaim measured response and turning the other cheek until it happens on your doorstep.

However I'm reminded of the image of Jesus in the market place, he was never shy about making His feelings known, and I guess He'd be vocal at both the G8 leaders and the anarchist bullies.