I’m hoping some of my colleagues Here on Twitter can do me a favor. I need a certain clip of a Jerry Garcia interview to be found for me on YouTube. I know I saw it at least eight years ago, but I do not want to sit and wash them all again.

The gist of the clip was as follows. Garcia was describing a time in around 1969 when the hippie were out in San Francisco. They had a live concert in the street, it became a peace demonstration, the police showed up to contain it, and then the governor sent the National Guard.

Jerry Garcia mused along the following lines, “Who could really think that having 500 national guardsmen show up would make things better? That the scene would actually improve if you did that.…

“...But in moments like that I always look for the guy who is the first To pick up a bottle or a rock and throw it at the cops… Because that’s how I know who the main asshole on the scene is.”

Let me remind those Who read my humble words here that we are always going to strive to be better than the other guys. In fact, several steps better. We are not the ones who bring violence to the scene. We are the good citizens who pick up our trash and act in an orderly way.

We do that because that’s who we are: we are the proverbial good guys. But also as a matter of experience: most of America knows something has gone dramatically wrong in this election, and They will be our base as long as we do not offend them by acting like goons.

So, again: please check the talk of violence. We’re not looking for fights. We are simply free men and free women hetr to insist, politely but firmly, that we still believe that “just law derives from the consent of the governed.”

And to discover what that consent is, we need to hold elections that are free, fair, and transparent.

Again, I believe our posture should be polite but firm. But please do not bring violence. It’s the only thing that will make us lose (given the way the mass media Will play it…

… And because we are better than that.