Fighting MOVE Is Worth It

This past weekend has brought a huge amount of media attention in Philadelphia back to MOVE. This is of course a double edged sword. I have argued in past posts and to any reporter who will listen that to just recount MOVE’s exploits in strictly a historical context is to miss the point. Make no mistake, MOVE is still capable of carrying out evil deeds and they in fact carry them out with little regard for what you and I think. But that does not mean that we ought to just sit back and be quiet.

Today, for example, I read a Facebook comment that essentially made the point that by standing up to MOVE that you are somehow helping to perpetuate the group’s existence by giving them something to fight against. When people argue in this kind of way they are not understanding the nature of MOVE in particular and evil in general.

The fact is that this is a group that does not need you to become their enemy. By nature of the fact that you are not a member or supporter of the group you are by definition their enemy. It doesn’t matter whether or not you speak up or not. In fact, MOVE has done what they have done and gotten away with what they have gotten away with not because people spoke out and did something, but because they did not when they should have.

If the neighbors in Powelton Village had banded together when MOVE started to terrorize their neighborhood than Police Officer James Ramp would not have had to die in order to come and take care of a problem that should have been handled years before.

The same goes for what happened on Osage Avenue. The City knew what was going on down there, but they tied the hands of the police who had to sit back and watch the same cult that murdered James Ramp build a stupid bunker on the top of their house complete with firing ports! And we all know how that played out.

What I have learned from dealing with MOVE and from quite literally shutting them down on many occasions is that they are no different than your run-of-the-mill school yard bully. If you stand up to them with facts, if you control yourself, if you believe in what it is you are doing and you do it with an eye towards compassion you can make a difference and you can make that difference without “helping” them.

Over the past couple of weeks, I have been asked the question by reporters and even friends and loved ones as to whether or not I am in “fear” of MOVE.

The short answer is “no” and that is not because MOVE is not cruel . There are infinite ways for me to be harmed. There are infinite ways for me to die. By disease, by accident, by my own hand, by someone elses. Our lives are finite specks of dust in comparison to the cosmos. It is really difficult for me to control how I die, but I can control how I live and I have decided that I will not stand by while murderers get away with killing people and children get abused. That is who I am and whatever consequences there are to that than those are the consequences that I am willing to accept. So there it is.