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On being young, stupid, and full of politics, and baseball rules

There’s an expression to describe young dogs bursting with energy, bounding all over the place, and jumping up on every person they meet: “Full of puppy.” If you’ve ever had a dog, you know what I’m talking about.

Just days before the 2024 election, novice political activist Caleb James Williams (photo, left), 18, of Neptune Beach, Florida, was perhaps too full of puppy; and he got a harsh lesson about the limits of free speech when jail doors slammed behind him.

Williams was part of a group of teens who went to a polling site intending to “confront and antagonize” sign-waving Harris supporters. After some back-and-forth arguing, Williams brandished a machete at two women, ages 71 and 54, and now he’s charged with felony aggravated assault (see story here).

The police chief said, “This group of juveniles probably wasn’t using their heads and they weren’t thinking very clearly about what they wanted to achieve.” However, none of the other teens, all under 18, were charged with a crime. All they did was shout and wave Trump flags, which is permissible.

When I read about Williams’ arrest, the phrase “young and stupid” came to mind. I didn’t think of the puppy analogy until later. Thinking back on my own life experiences, I recalled that teenage activists tend to have more enthusiasm than sense of where the boundaries of political expression are, though it doesn’t take formal education to understand that signs and weapons are different things.

When I was growing up, 18-year-olds could work for political campaigns and wave signs on street corners, but couldn’t vote. The voting age was changed from 21 to 18 as a direct result of the Vietnam war; the argument was, “If you’re old enough to die in Vietnam, you’re old enough to vote.” When I was young, the Vietnam draft was an intense political issue; and the youngsters being sent to Vietnam’s battlefields understood how serious politics is.

I’m guessing Caleb Williams doesn’t know much about this election’s issues. An 18-year-old has no trouble understanding a draft notice or seeing his classmates come home in flag-draped coffins. Immigration, the economy, race, and foreign policy are more nuanced, and require more knowledge and critical thinking skills than teenagers typically possess. I’m not arguing against 18-year-0lds voting; I support it, and don’t laugh at bad jokes about not allowing women to vote.

Baseball rules are often instructive about life in general. If you watch a manager argue with an umpire, you’ll see them get chest-to-chest and nose-to-nose, but there’s no touching. You can argue, but you can’t touch. And what do you suppose would happen to a manager or player who brandished a bat at an umpire or another player? C’mon, folks, this isn’t hard; even 10-year-old fans understand it. Those are the street rules, too, at political rallies and demonstrations.

I wish Caleb Williams well in his post-jail life. With a good lawyer, maybe he can get a deferred sentence, and won’t lose his voting rights for years to come. If I were his defense lawyer, that’s the route I would take, because a felony conviction at age 18 will completely wreck a person’s life. Since no one got physically hurt, society doesn’t have to be that harsh with him.

I hope he learns and grows from this experience. Maybe someday he’ll even study law, as I did after my teen activism years faded behind me, and then appreciate the finer points of freedom of expression — and that even in our free society, it has limits. He might also realize, as I eventually did, that the world is shades of gray, not black and white, and no political leader is a messiah and it’s dangerous to think someone is.

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