Today I will focus on one topic, a collection of reflections on the Chicago protest during the 2012 NATO meeting this past weekend. It’s hard for me to imagine what it must have been like to have been among thousands of peaceful protestors surrounded by thousands of clanking armored uniforms and their oversized, lethal “toys.”
But: remember this. Sooner or later the edges will fuzz enough to fuse the huddled masses into one swelling mass, we, the people, we, the 100%, “with liberty and justice for all” — here, and everywhere.
Meanwhile, just this morning I read in the local paper that some of the black-clad young men who burst in on the restaurant in Chicago pumped for blood were from the Bloomington area. Reportedly members of a violent anti-racist group that aimed to knock down a racist group that was, they said, meeting in that restaurant for a meal. I had to shake my head in wonder, at the mirror-image that greets us when we use violence to disrupt violence.
Then puppy Shadow and I went for our morning walk. On our way back home, a gigantic black helicopter circled slowly over Bloomington, its noise deafening. What? That’s the second morning this week. Are we all being “readied” for the police state?
It’s hard to stay centered and steady when such news and such impressions surround us. Yet we must, we must. If not us, then who? If not now, then when?
First, originally in Rolling Stone, the context of the current action in Chicago, and brilliantly written:
• readersupportednews.org: Chicago History Repeats Itself as Police and Protestors Clash
Next, more on those veterans, what they did for us all; what hopefully, other soldiers, still in action, suddenly recognized.
• readersupportednews.org: U.S. War Veterans Tossing Medals Back at NATO Was Heroic
And finally, a 75-year-old great-grandma who rode on a bus for three days from Portland without changing her clothes to participate in the protest. She says she wanted to get out of her “comfort zone,” says she’s ready to die for our cause, that she can’t imagine a better way to go.
• usnews.msnbc.msn.com: Great Grandma: Ready to Lose My Life Protesting
And if you’re one of those who thinks protest is futile, you might want to read this:
