Warning: Constant ABSPATH already defined in /home/wordsend/public_html/wp-config.php on line 29

Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/wordsend/public_html/wp-config.php:29) in /home/wordsend/public_html/wp-content/plugins/wordpress-mobile-pack/inc/class-wmp-cookie.php on line 50

Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/wordsend/public_html/wp-config.php:29) in /home/wordsend/public_html/wp-includes/feed-rss2-comments.php on line 8
Comments on: War protest in Boston https://www.wordsend.org/2003/03/25/war-protest-in-boston/ searching for the ineffable Tue, 25 Mar 2003 14:28:25 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.1 By: Dave Glasser https://www.wordsend.org/2003/03/25/war-protest-in-boston/comment-page-1/#comment-3 Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 /?p=220#comment-3 Indeed. I was at the same protest, and while I felt some good came of it, it had two (seemingly contradictory) problems: the overall message was too vague, but the individual speakers were too… divisive? controversial? So the general chants all seemed far too recycled — “what do we want? peace etc.” and so on being just grabbed out of the bag of peace protest chants and not really expressing anything non-trivial: take a look at any of Bush’s speeches and you’ll see him expressing wishes for longterm peace. But then, even when the crowd in general didn’t seem to have a focused agenda, all of the speakers had theirs, so whether they were complaining about Bush and his questionable election, or attacking Israel, or anything that didn’t have to do with the situation in Iraq, one by one many of them made me feel upset that I was a face in a protest behind them. (And that’s not even counting the protesting-for-protest’s sake crowd; I’ll have to admit that I felt kind of proud of the giant Bush puppet my group had, even though I couldn’t quite understand what the symbolism was.)

OK, I don’t think I said anything there that you didn’t say in your post, but might as well hit POST instead of deleting it all.

]]> By: A.J. https://www.wordsend.org/2003/03/25/war-protest-in-boston/comment-page-1/#comment-4 Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 /?p=220#comment-4 The thing I’ve noted lately is how recycled all the protests seem. being (barely) old enough to remember the Viet Nam protests, these seem like pale imitations.

Vika’s point about the police illustrates that perfectly. In the 60’s and early 70’s the “establishment” was scared shitless of counter culture youth and the peace movement that they pushed. The goverment at the time reacted with violence. Police really did bust heads of people just for disagreeing with the goverment.

But you know what? I would like to think we’ve progressed some since 1969. I think today’s police are better trained, and have the bad example of the 60s to look back on. Also I think the goverment, while still nibbling at our civil rights is not so unsophisticated to try thug tactics like that today.

Today it just looks silly to go on about how brutal the police are. They are clearly not the enemy. So why is this woman saying things like that? I think only because she somehow learned that that was what you were supposed to do at a protest. It isn’t about that war, its about the protest. That is sad. If people are that out of touch, no wonder we have Bush in the Whitehouse.

]]>