Outrage (and a Warm Fuzzy)

My old friend Kenny Ketner, who writes at Lubbock Left, posted a picture this morning of a protester getting pepper sprayed in the face at point blank range by a Portland cop. There is no evidence in the picture that she or the people around her were being violent in any way. From what I can tell, they may or may not have been blocking the road and/or the MAX railroad tracks.

Call me radical but I don't think it's appropriate to respond to civil disobedience with violence. In no other aspect of our lives do we find it reasonable to bend others to our will with physical force. Now, I realize that the police are tasked with keeping order. Which is why we grant them the ability to arrest people, using force only when arrest is being resisted, or when the arrestee (is that a word?) is being violent.

When there are too many people to arrest, that's a sign that there's some underlying problem, not that it's time to start using weaponry against the populace. Sheesh.

So, now that I've got everyone outraged (I hope), let me make up for it by also offering warm fuzzies! Another friend posted this article (it's a good day on the Facebook) about sex-positive sex education in a Quaker prep school in Philadelphia. If only we could get this kind of sex ed for all teenagers.