I sat at an outdoor cafe last night with a group of reporters and a couple of protesters. I showed up late and I had missed the introductions. One nice looking guy was sitting on my right. The other protester sat across the table from me. I did not catch either mans name. These were young guys, in their 20's and both seemed articulate and bright.
For those wanting the tatooed and angry protesters from Seattle's WTO riots, these were not them. These were the educated and caring people who would like to see real change come to the economic realities of the world. Fewer vastly wealthy people, more healthcare and food for the desperately poor. What exactly is wrong with that?
The guy sitting to my left lives in Florida and is a pre-school teacher. So is his wife and while I doubt they make a lot of money, what they do have is summers off and work that makes them happy. I wonder how many people have either of those. We talked about this American tradition of working until you are sick, never taking real vacations where you spend time out of your comfort zone and enjoy other cultures. It is easy to make fun of the French, until you spend some time with the French.
He also talked about the dangers of protesting. He did not want to break windows, he did not want to damage the city, he wanted to be part of a movement that supports people over big business and with the worlds most powerful leaders coming into the city today for a two day summit, this is the place right now to get that message out.
Speaking of messages, as I was looking for parking last night, two vans of Pittsburgh police stopped in front of me, emptied into a convenience store parking lot and immediately surrounded two skinny hippies. I did not run up with my camera, so I missed whatever it was that motivated the police response, but very few times in life does 10-15 police really need to respond with force to question two skinny hippies.
No comments:
Post a Comment