Way back in the 1980s, when I was in college, we had a tent city on the UC Berkeley campus to protest the Apartheid regime in South Africa. Lots of parallels to what's been happening on campuses recently with the Palestinian solidarity protests, including violent police crack downs.
During this time, author Kurt Vonnegut came to speak in support of the movement, and against Apartheid. I don't remember what he said then. But here's an amusing clip of him talking about the writing process, explaining the different types of character arcs a story can have.
What a scene. At one point on the third night I was backing up slowly, fending off a rogue UC cop who had gotten out ahead of his unit. He had a billy club. I had a piece of 2x3. We were dueling as if with swords. I know a bit of bataireacht, so I was using the lumber like a shillelagh. I remember doing a lot of two handed parrying. He apparently didn't know that move or how to work around it.
I was trying to lure him into the shadow where I could switch from defense to offense and not fear photography. People had been throwing bottles. They were all over the ground. I slipped on one and landed flat on my back. I was about to get my head split open with his club. Its swing had already begun. I figured I was a goner. With luck, I'd only wind up in a coma. It was the best I could hope for.
Suddenly, I heard a mighty kiai split the night. It was a tankie woman who'd been flirting with me earlier in the evening before the fighting started. She'd probably been trying to lure me into her cult (RCP). I'd politely brushed her off. She came to my rescue, flying through the air like Bruce Lee in that movie, head high, feet first. I thought she was aiming her feet at his head, but she sailed right past him. As she did, she caught him on the chin with her elbow, or maybe it was her fist. I couldn't tell. Either way, his head snapped around and boom! He was down, and I was up and off and out of there, gone to safer ground, scampering as fast as I could . Scampering is not my long suit (game leg, old hit and run, long story), but I made an extra effort. It seems to have worked.