2003-03-31 - 10:56 a.m.

Okay so recently a friend of mine (you know you you are) forwarded me an article about the protest movement.

heres the URL for reference. http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=15500

Anyway the gist of the article seems to be that the protest movement is ineffectual and doesn't offer any solutions. That the protestors are just reacting, and that people will only be angry at them and vote for Bush in the next election. That the protestors are only serving the needs of the protestors.

I have to say I strongly disagree. Protests are vital when a govenment acts out of turn, shutting up is not. Corporations pay labbyists millions and millions of dollars a year to be professional protestors. To go to washington and bitch. Why? because they know damn well that the squeaky wheel gets the grease. We the people who believe this war is immoral and are opposed to the senseless killing, don't necesarily have millions to spend on lobbyists, so we stand in public and say what we believe. Primal scream? No. Screaming comes from anger, and the true protestors stand for true peace, and their energy comes from that vision of peace.

My friend the Sauceman lives in Taiwan, I'm going to quote from his journal about a protest there:

"Yesterday's demonstration was amazing. I had no idea we could get so many people out there on the streets. I still don't have an estimate, but there were hundreds of people.

At 1:00 I went to the corner of Da-An Park at Hsing Xeng and Hsin Yi Road to pass put flyers with Bayram and Sean. We were right next to the flower market, so we bought several bunches of flowers. At about 2:30 we got together a group and marched with our signs to the AIT a few blocks away. We were met by about a hundred police officers with riot shields. There were also two guards at the door holding M16s. One plain clothes police officer gave us photocopies of the laws regarding foreigners, warning us that any civil disobediance could lead to deportation. I told him it was a peaceful demonstration. He said he knew that and that the police hated dealing with the courts anyway. He added that he would like to march with us if he could.

The police wouldn't let us cross the street, so we left all our flowers on the corner. The press was there in full force and interviewed a Palestinian, carrying two milk cartons and a sign that said "Iraqi Children Need Milk, Not War." After that I walked back to the edge of the park and found hundreds of people holding signs in front of the Labor Rights truck. Speakers were getting the crowd going. Soon we were off. I couldn't believe how many people were marching down the street chanting, pounding drums and holding giant banners. Six men at the front of the parade were carrying a coffin with someone in it.

One guy painted himself with fake blood and wrapped himself in a burned up Iraqi flag. There were some good signs, "Bush, Rumsfeld, Wolfawitz: Axis of Killers," and "No CNN." Sissy Chen, a well-known lawmaker, was also with us. One chant particularly irritated me:

WHO LET THE BOMBS OUT?!

BUSH! BUSH! and BLAIR!!

I was interviewed by a student newspaper and had to use my limited Chinese, until I just launched into a tirade into English into the recorder. I noticed the Taiwan Transgender society made an appearance again. When we got to the AIT, it was impossible for the police to keep us from getting across the street, so they let us get right in front of the building.

While we were staging our little die in, I noticed a scuffle with the police which started getting a little out of control. Someone was charging the police and a few were pushing up against the shields. Finally he pushed his way through and began running around in the middle of the circle of police waving his signs. Sean, the New Zealander and organizer, started frantically running around warning foreigners to stay out of the way. Tan said that guy was "kind of an uninvited guest," who always comes to the protests and causes trouble. He's a former lawmaker too! Then there was another skirmish, but it was impossible to see because of all the camera people. Someone tried to spray paint the side of the building. Everyone started chanting "qu lai! qu lai!" "Come outside! Come outside!" to the AIT officials, but no one showed. Someone announced that if they weren't going to let them leave the coffin, they were going to set it on fire. Fortunately they didn't. Someone tried to burn a nylon American flag, but they should have taken a cue from Freddy Lin's experience and soaked the sucker in gasoline. Not that I'm saying it was a good idea. Everyone started singing when they spray painted in giant letters, "The American Institute of Terror" on the pavement in front of the building.

While we marched to the British Consulate, I talked to a retired nuclear engineer, turned English teacher named Wallace. He said he had worked for so many years for the nuclear plants in Taiwan and now has turned into a anti-nuclear activist. He said no one should ever swim at the beaches of Kenting because of the nuclear plants around the area. I'm meeting him for tea later this week.

Then one of the organizers asked me to give a speech from the truck, since I had helped out at Labor Rights. She introduced me to the crowd and said my father had been demonstrating back in the states. A South African guy translated my speech. I told them that I was there to show my solidarity with the worldwide demonstrations. I said that we support our troops by calling for our leaders to bring them home. I said our leaders had never served in the military and still saw war as the only solution. They've ignored us and have no respect for the UN's efforts to find a peaceful resolution. I mentioned having family who had served in the armed forces and that everyone knows someone who's been sent to Iraq. I said, as Americans, many of us have learned what happens when we put too much trust in our government and that today we came to say to Blair and Bush, "NOT IN OUR NAME!!!!" Then I led a chant to conclude. Someone told me he had heard one man chanting "That is our name!!" I guess he misunderstood what I said. Then they heaved the coffin into the British Consulate's court yard.

Our last stop was right down the street at the mosque. Organizers passed out chrysanthemums, which we lined up to place on a giant "Stop War" sign. There was a group of Muslims who stood in front of the mosque while we had a moment of silence. I noticed the nut lawmaker had rejoined us and was jumping in front of every camera to wave his signs. Then everyone sang "Blowing in the Wind" and we gradually dispersed. As I left I noticed that the flowers we had placed on the sign spelled out "Stop War," and someone had written "Fuck Bush" with a black marker over the message.

Thanks to whoever wrote that. It really helped get our point across.

When I got home all the Chinese stations were airing clips from the protest. Even CNN aired a piece about it and on their website, they mentioned the anti-CNN signs. Meanwhile the armies are moving toward Baghdad.

John's got the war fever now. He's got a big map of Iraq on his wall, where last year he had hung his World Cup results chart. He's been periodically updating the map with little army pins and buring oil wells. On tv there's sexy young girl dressed in combat fatigues with a giant map. She and a guy dressed in a general's unform move the armies around the board. It's like a footbal match isn't it?"

You can see that there were one or two people who were just there to wreak havoc and get attention, and of course, the media loves these sorts. There will always be people like this, but the overwhelming majority of the protestors were not attacking police or jumping up and down in front of the camera. They were they because they believe injustice is being done.

Let me quote one more person, Sauceman's mom, who live just up the road a bit from me, in her editorial to the local paper.

"Standing On the Ducktrap Bridge

Our stomachs are queasy; we tend to cluster together for safety, but force ourselves to spread out for visibility. We scrutinize every approaching

car. Is it someone we know? Are they hostile or friendly? I'm scared the whole time I'm out there; it's the hardest thing I've ever done. But I wouldn't be anywhere else.

In the month or so of Sundays that I've stood on the bridge along with a small group of war protestors, a bottle has been heaved at us, two pick-ups have swerved toward us while traveling at high speed, we've lost count of the times we've been flipped off. Even though most who respond wave, honk, show the peace sign, or thumbs up, an increasing number studiously ignore us, looking straight ahead, refusing to engage.

I'm beginning to receive email from friends and family, from people I truly value in my life, expressing hatred for the position I've taken. "How can you say you support the troops when you don't support the war?" they ask. "Our soldiers are dying so you can protest." That American sons and daughters are now dying, wounded, or captured doesn't make the war right. Instead, it makes it tragic.

It doesn't make it right for the U.S., the country that I love as much as anyone, to invade a country that had not attacked us. It's that simple. There are many more things that can be said about the way we've been manipulated and frightened by our own government, that out of the whole Congress only one member has a child in the military, but I think that sums it up. Since when does America attack another country preemptively?

So what am I supposed to do? Shut up and watch this horror unfold, watch other women's sons and husbands die fighting in a war that I believe is immoral? Ignore dead and wounded Iraqi civilians? Look straight ahead when I pass war protestors? Call them traitors and unpatriotic? Americans pride themselves on doing their own thinking, weighing evidence, coming to conclusions that are their own. That's our heritage.

I'll be on the Ducktrap Bridge this Sunday at noon along with my fellow townspeople who feel the same way I do. And if you disagree, don't give us the finger; stop and talk with us. Or call me; let's talk it out. We were friends before this mess; we'll be friends after it's over. "

Self serving? No. Self righteous? No. A primal reaction? No. That would much better decribe the bottle throwers and people who flip them off as the stand there. In the Geov Parrish Article, he says he doesn't want to be heard, he wants things to change. We I have news for Mr. Parrish: you can't have one without the other. Who knows what attrocities our goverment would try to get away with if no one were still standing against it? The protests are valid and valuable, and I have nothing but respect for the people standing in the rain with their signs. It sounds like Parrish perhaps thinks he is too hip to protest. You can stand in the shadows and try to conjure up some silent social change all you wants, but don't be hatin' on the protestors because you're too cool to stand with them.

Okay thats all for now, I'm off to lunch.

Song o' the day: "Me and the Bees" -The Softies

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