Who Guy Fawkes Actually Was

They're at it again: Civic Center BART Station shuts down. Police clear the station. Protesters march on Market Street, shutting down traffic there; the group arrives at Powell Street Station and now that station is shut down. We're pretty-much repeating last Monday's protest. Nothing has changed, nothing will change b/c of these protests, except it will turn one of the most liberal urban areas in the USA against the very causes that they would have instinctively supported.

Thing is, I do not fully disagree or fully agree with issues that are being protested re: BART's police department. If it were simply a matter of that, I would shake my head, shrug my shoulders, and not get hot under the collar. But I cannot believe something I am seeing here. Check this out:

The anarchist undertone of this movement is linked to the cybergroup Anonymous; the movement has adopted the caricature of Guy Fawkes... and that makes me sick to my stomach. I ask you: do you know anything about Guy Fawkes?

Guy Fawkes was a Catholic terrorist. He was inspired to attempt an assassination of James I/VI in order to restore Roman theological hegemony over the Scots, English, and Irish. Yeah... James VI of the Scots -aka- James I of England. The James of the King James Bible. The James who had a number of close male friends including a courtier named George Villiers, styled 1st Duke of Buckingham, whom James referred to as my sweet child and wife and whose bedroom contained a just-recently-uncovered secret hallway directly into James's bedroom. I wasn't there so I don't know anything for a fact... but... I mean... hellllloooooo?

Guy Fawkes attempted to murder King James, a likely man-fancying Protestant, in order to return Catholic rule to the Isles. And this group has adopted that attempted murderer of one of my kind as a symbol. I for one think this is a really shitty irony and this is an open letter to that movement: please do not use the likeness of a man who sought to undermine the Protestant Reformation in my ancestral homelands.

Finally though, is the point where I am beside myself with regard to their hypocrisy. Let's ponder this: they use the phrase ANONYMITY IS DEAD as one of their rallying cries and yet they wear masks. How in the hell is that in keeping with their stated beliefs? Could it be that they are really just a bunch of passive-aggressive anarchists-at-heart who do not realize that they are undermining the very causes they claim to support with their hypocrisy? People who truly understand and support a deeply-held belief do not hide behind a stylized face-mask.

I am a Jesus-freak.

I am a Socialist Democrat.

I am a same-gender loving cis-gender man.

You know my name from my profile.

You can see pictures of me on my Facebook account.

I live in San Leandro, California... ~20 miles from SF.

I am not hiding behind a mask. 

Come out, little ones; let us see who you are.

You might find that you have more allies that way. Food for thought.