ocalamike510@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
(Michael Napolitano) wrote in message
news:<20040723081709.24808.00000310@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>...
> Wow, kj, all that happening in Boston? Next to San Francisco, I always
figured
> Boston to be a hotbed of liberalism that wouldn't put up with this
stuff. How
> are the people in Cambridge reacting?
>
> mikey
.....well, that's one of the scary things....some of its been kind of
sneaky....although road closings and mass transit reroutings were
announced, i don't think that folks really got what was happening
until this week.....and i think it's just beginning....
....when the protest groups saw the barbed fence aisle, far from any
delegates...they pretty much flipped out....and are still in court,
fighting for it to be changed.....there is a demonstration that
somehow got a permit to be in front of the fleet center Sunday, so
alot of groups will be marching together for that one......but the
convention doesn't really start until Monday... and court decisions
are pending....
.....as for the searches, the ACLU has been warning everyone....first
the officials started with scanning machines, not very
intrusive....nobody much minded....but now they are actually
searching....and people are saying more often....'"it feels like a
police state"....the tanks and hummers became visible yesterday...
there are over 100 cameras in the center of boston...recording
folks....
...the mass aclu has a pin cover on it's site (I refuse to be searched)
which alot of people have started to wear.....of course you also can't
ride the T, either.......you are escorted from the station....they
have already detained several folks for reaching into their
backpacks...for their transit pass.....
....what's becoming very clear to me in a very real way is that protest
and terrorism are being blurred in such a clever way.....people can
excuse alot of radical suppression in the name of safety (they are so
certain more repression keeps us safe?!...) without realizing that it
also stops protest, normal communications, and everyday life.....this
is exactly the conflict about the Patriot's Act....
....though personally i have no conflict that the Act is such an
intrusion ...now that i see it in action...i am truly
frightened....much more than i was in 1969, marching between a double
row of armed and gas-masked soldiers to the Nov 15th protest......this
is really dangerous in such an insidious way...
....the other feeling that people are experiencing is a total
separation from their government...their political process.... and so
it is..
.....i ask that people who are interested please try to keep in touch
with what is really happening here....try
http://www.democracynow.org
for some left leaning news coverage (keeping your balance with the
media).....as they will be covering the convention also......
.....keep the faith, it's not lost yet.....and have fun while you do...
:)kj
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