Hey Dad! Don't know if you guys were worried, but here's a preemptive "I'm OK." It's kinda crazy in SF today. I couldn't get to work on the bus I normally take from BART, so I had to take this other street car to a different UCSF campus and ride the shuttlebus to my campus. It took forever.
Downtown SF was kinda scary too. Protesters and businesspeople were getting into fights. I really felt afraid in a way that I haven't before. Mob action is scary. I had a revelation this morning: the protesters want peace, but purely by showing up and disrupting normal life, they guarantee anger and violence.
Talk to you later! Love, Alli
That's the most brilliant and obvious revelation I haven't heard from the news media yet. I remember Ayn Rand wrote (or actually requoted) about Woodstock, that it would become groover as time went on. I'm afraid that's how these protestors will view this years from now. I had a conversation with an old acquaintance a year ago who moved to SF and is now involved with all the World Bank protests. When I mentioned the riot they lead in Seattle a while back, he acted like it was a big surprise, as if it was out of character for such peace loving people burst out in sudden violence. These people just don't get it. I don't care how good intentioned they are, when I see this mass of people who trade all sound reason for emotion I see a big disaster waiting to happen.
That is "democracy" in action; the mob rules.
I had a revelation this morning: the protesters want peace, but purely by showing up and disrupting normal life, they guarantee anger and violence.
The protestors do not want peace. They want the overthrow of the Constitution and our 3 branches of government replaced with an anarchist-socialist utopia that is designed to prove that Marx had good ideas, that the communists just didn't apply them right.
They do not want peace. They want George W. Bush out of the White House (listen to their rhetoric). That this is a continuation of the bombing on Iraq President Clinton explains Iraq strike (FLASHBACK to 1998, worth reading) ) that Bill Clinton perpetrated during impeachement (without protest) and their support for Palestianian war (including suicide bombers) proves that they are not an anti-war/peace movement.
Burning an American flag, insulting passers by (and spitting on them), and blocking traffic (making the work commute longer, possibly meeting important events) all are provocations. It is not the mere protest that spurs people to violence.
The SF protests from January/February had nothing but a mob mentality to bring forth violent destruction. They vandalized (breaking windows and more) a bank, an INS office, and a Starbucks, among other places.
This is NOT a peace movement. Learn it.
Well, I'm glad that the business people are fighting back. I hope they bust a few heads of these socialists.