I don’t always agree with Governor Mark Dayton. However, I do agree with a comment he made about the protest of the Minnesota State Fair by the Black Lives Matter group. According to the Pioneer Press, before Saturday’s fair protest, the governor said that while Black Lives Matter had valid concerns, the protest of the “Great Minnesota Get Together” was “inappropriate.”
The governor’s comments prompted another protest, of the Governor’s Mansion, on September 1. According to the Pioneer Press about 40 protesters listened to Black Lives Matter organizer Rashad Turner as he declared, “He’s calling what is a constitutional right of ours, of every single citizen of this country to protest, he’s calling that inappropriate.”
If I had the chance to talk to Turner, I would tell him that I respectfully disagree. There is nothing in the Constitution that says a protest can’t be called inappropriate. None of the Black Lives Matter marchers were arrested; none were harmed. Their right to free speech was not stifled.
Even if I disagreed with their message—which I do not—I would defend their right to use their voices. Citizens have the right to peaceably assemble and protest injustice.
But that doesn’t mean that the timing and the place of the protest were appropriate to the governor—or to me.
I was at the State Fair that day. As I wrote last week, it has been decades since our family made the trek to the Cities for the frivolity. We were all really excited about it.
And then we read the news report that a Black Lives Matter protest was to be held on the very day that we were going.
Our plans were made; we weren’t going to change them because of a protest that was to take place outside of the Fair. We went anyway, hoping that the march would be peaceful and that it wouldn’t affect our entry to the Fair.
It didn’t. We were impacted very little by the protest, although my overly sensitive granddaughter was nervous about the television helicopters that hovered overhead for several hours.
And, we didn’t get to see the parade, which was disappointing. Daughter-in-law Sara knew about the parade through the fairgrounds and researched to find the best spot to see the high school marching bands, floats and animals. We worked our way through the crowds and picked a spot along the route and waited. And waited…and waited.
We began to wonder if we were in the wrong spot and a passerby heard us. She told us the parade had been cancelled because of the protest.
We didn’t know why, but watching the news that evening we learned that the Black Lives Matter marchers had broken into two groups, one chanting at the main gate and another heading to another entrance. St. Paul police and fair security officers had closed the main gate, stopping the protestors from entering to disrupt the fair. When the second group approached the unlocked gate, police headed to that gate to close it as well.
There was a bit of a tussle as the police locked the gate, some protestors attempted to force their way in. But the gate was closed and it didn’t appear that anyone was injured.
However, it did prevent anyone who wanted to leave the fair at that exit from leaving and it blocked those who paid to enter the fair from entering at that gate for several hours.
And, because that gate was used as part of the parade route and police felt they could not guarantee the safety of the thousands of people at the fair if the gate was opened, the parade was cancelled.
That is why I agree with Governor Dayton. It was inappropriate to disrupt families who wanted to enjoy the fair. It was unfair to block band members who had practiced all year for that day at the parade. It was unnecessary to frighten children with shouting and chanting at a traditionally family fun event.
Especially after reading reports that the Fair organizers reached out to Black Lives Matter. According to MPR, State Fair general manager Jerry Hammer offered the group a booth at the Fair to share its information and concerns. Protestors could have taken the fair up on the offer and could have spent a full week talking to the hundreds of thousands of people that attended the fair. Marchers may have been surprised that many inside the Fair gates share some of the same concerns.
If the goal was to simply get 15 minutes of fame on television, the Black Lives Matter protest was successful. If the goal was to initiate civil dialog about the need for ethnic diversity at the Fair, it was not.
And yes, Governor, I agree. It was inappropriate.
A genuine leader is not
a searcher for consensus
but a molder of consensus.
Martin Luther King Jr.
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