Residents of the Contra Costa County, California Rossmoor Senior living community take their politics and their pickleball seriously. In this current Trumpian era, tensions were already heightened, and the assassination attempt on former President Trump, and subsequent battling expressions of sympathy and disparagement, pushed them into the forefront on the community’s pickleball court leading to a fistfight and hair pulling brouhaha between two female residents. Rossmoor Senior living is privately owned and management sought to turn the temperature down by limiting political expression in the old folks in-house newspaper, leading to some discontent primarily among the community’s social justice set, who recall the glory days of their youth – making good trouble for the cause of racial equality.
They shall overcome:
San Francisco Chronicle on MSN
“Growing dissent at the upscale Contra Costa County senior community of Rossmoor offers a chilling preview of where our country is headed if we can’t start discussing our political differences civilly. Inflamed by a fistfight between two women on the pickleball court at the 55-and-over community, the tensions have escalated to include complaints of an authoritarian crackdown on free speech — including restrictions on public demonstrations on its lush grounds and on political commentary in the Rossmoor News.
Some residents say more than their free speech is being impinged. They call the restrictions “infantilizing” for an age group whose members can be sensitive about being told what to do and what’s best for them. For them, the new rules are akin to taking the free speech keys from Grandma and Grandpa, decades after this generation’s seniors used them to transform society during the Civil Rights era.
“Banning the political columns are not going to bring peace to Rossmoor. They’re not. They are, in fact, exacerbating the problem,” said Katha Hartley, director of the speakers program for Rossmoor’s largest club, the 1,240-member Democrats of Rossmoor. “We’re being treated like kids in a high school cafeteria where two people had a food fight, and now everyone’s on suspension.”
My money is on the MAGA mama having thrown the first punch. The quest for racial justice in 50’s and 60’s America was waged by largely peaceful protesters on one side and progenitors of the Make America Racist Again crowd on the other…
“These are people who’ve marched, who’ve been through civil rights, MLK, assassinations, Vietnam. These are experienced people who, when you say, ‘No, you can’t talk, you can’t come, you can’t express opinions,’ are saying, ‘Oh, yes, we can. We’ve been doing it all our lives,’” Hartley said.
And you still are Ms. Hartley, and good for you all for still fighting the good fight!
“According to several residents, one pro-Trump pickler blamed Democratic rhetoric for the assassination attempt while an anti-Trumper made an inappropriate comment demeaning his near-death experience. Pushing and shoving started between two women playing at the Tice Creek Fitness Center, and, according to several Rossmoor residents who asked not to be identified so they could speak freely about the controversial issue, punches were thrown and the combatants tumbled onto on the hardwood basketball court that doubles as the pickleball court. Clumps of pulled hair were left on the ground.”
Jebus.
Maybe they should just ban Pickleball until Trump finally departs stage right…
They have become too used to us not fighting back, and being polite despite their goading and lies.
Buckle up snowflakes.
The gloves are off.
I agree. The lesson of history, given the history of WW2, is sometimes a fight is necessary in whatever form it takes to stop fascism. When you’re dealing with people who have no heart or compassion for others, nothing is off the table. When you stand against truth, facts, science, history, human decency and kindness, others, false religious doctrine, and anyone NOT YOU…well…you who follow that path need stopping. You tell us what it will take!!!!!!!!!!!
I grew up in Santa Clara County, CA, across the Bay from Contra Costa County, and it is absolutely true that protests in the civil rights era were non violent on the left – not that we didn’t often get treated asa if we were violent, as is still happening today. That kind of response to non-violent protest was wrong then, and it is wrong now. I recently saw a meme “Everbody is in favor of free speech, until they realize that other people have it too.”
you’re correct, I live there and the AGA mama through the 1st punch and she paid the price