Excuse me, but just what is this supposed to accomplish?
(image borrowed from HistoryLink)This is Westlake center. Protesters have turned over a couple of dumpsters and lit them on fire, and the above picture is of them facing off with the police.
Okay, so the WTO is evil, whatever. (I don't feel one way or another about the WTO, myself.) And you will do what by shutting down the talks? force them into further secrecy? Next time they simply won't tell anyone where they'll be meeting.
This afternoon was pretty much complete chaos in downtown Seattle. I have people i care about very much who were basically trapped there.
I can sum up my feelings about this in just a few words:
Mob mentality sucks.
I'm trying to live here, people. Don't come to my city to try and fuck things up. Organzed marches, well, all right. But chaining yourselves together and making an already miserable traffic situation worse isn't going to put you on anyone's good side. Don't uproot planters and break windows and cover buildings with graffiti. That's just plain bad taste.
I understand that people have burning issues they want to bring ino the light of day. (In fact, someone i care about a lot was downtown protesting this morning.)
But you can make your point without fucking shit up. Really.
I feel like I should be on the side of the protestors—civil disobedience is good, right? But i'm not. I was all for the things like the big AFL-CIO march, the well-organized stuff that turned out to be pretty non-violent.
But the ones who got out of hand...those are the ones I'm upset with.
from BBSes this afternoon:
Nov 30, 1999 16:32 from **** ***** You know, maybe people would listen to anarchists if they could hold a rally without tearing shit up. [Some Things Considered> msg #38187 (9 remaining)] Nov 30, 1999 16:32 from *** * Perhaps they can't help demonstrating some rather significant flaws in the concept of anarchy itself. [Some Things Considered> msg #38188
*****
Nov 30, 1999 12:03 PM from ******** From a friend who couldn't get in to work today because she had to go through downtown to do it by bus: Wow! What a wild experience. I walked downtown today, to try to catch a bus. That was a mistake. Protesters are blocking every major intersection - I even got trapped for a while as a pedestrian, as they are locking arms from building to building. The restaurant where Daniel works, at 6th and Stewart, had its dumpsters stolen, along with those of its neighbors, and these were all dumped in the streets and then chained together to block traffic. I ate breakfast there, surrounded by foreign WTO business men who all ate dessert for breakfast (and who, by the way, don't tip.) That was odd. I then waIked to Pine and 4th, to check things out. NikeTown is plastered with spraypaint; "Fuck You Nike," storefront windows have been broken, and there are people dressed as trees and bugs and globes and other granola fare, many of whom are geared up with gas masks or scarves over their faces. A sea of people chanting, for blocks and blocks, and more are swarming in. I heard guy on a cell phone confirming that teargas had been deployed at 5th and Union - and then I got the hell outta there. Whew. Free trade, anyone? [WTO> msg #62
*****
Nov 30, 1999 1:18 PM from ****** I've had at least four coworkers walk down to check it out. And every one of them have used the word "riot" when they came back. They've all been shaking their heads, kind of amused but kind of ill, too, you know? [WTO> msg #67
and that's all the news from the home front.Bah. That's all i have to say. Bah.
how goes the war?
pissed as hell. This is just so...so...so STUPID.
