and my feet hurt

[gordonzola]

We shut down much of downtown SF today. I'm tired and going to bed. The acting police chief (father of the fajita-craving cop with anger management issues) called it the most disruptive protest in his 30 years on the job.

I woke up to helicopters and it seems like I'll be going to sleep to them also.

Comments

[jwz.livejournal.com]

So, you're a guy who Thinks About Things, so I want to ask... why? I'm curious what your reason is for thinking this was a good idea.

And I don't mean that in the sense of "you're wrong, let's fight!" but really just because most of the other people who've tried to explain their reasons to me have just made me want to sentence them to a manditory critical thinking class. I'm curious to hear the answer from someone who actually has one.

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

I actually have one simple reason. On the day that the country I live in starts overtly dropping tons of bombs on people, letting business go on as usual is complicity.

It's cliched to quote, but I can't improve on Mario Savio's famous speech really. I think it gets used way too often, but this part is just as true as ever:

" There is a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can't take part; you can't even passively take part, and you've got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you've got to make it stop. And you've got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you're free, the machine will be prevented from working at all! "

I don't view yesterday's actions as a time to convince anyone.  Sometimes you need to use tactics that are more to show that you're alive as part of opposition and resistance than as an educational tool. I view yesterday as a way to show that many, many people are unwilling to have a war of aggression fought in our names. (as well as opposing the crackdown in rights in the name of fighting terrorism, etc. etc.)

I don't like tactics that inconvenience people without power in general. I don't like traffic blockades as a long-term tactic. (I would have been happy if everyone ended the traffic actions at the close of business hours.) But I think that in this case, at that time, shutting down business as usual in a major city is a meaningful goal.

And I did not take your question in any way as picking a fight, btw. But thank you for making that so clear.