seattle

[Christine Peterson]

>Ah, there is nothing like the smell of tear gas accompanied by the
>screams and cries of outrage in the morning. It smells like
>... victory.
>

Yes - definitely we won. maybe I shouldn't say 'we' because I didn't go out 
and sacrifice myself like a few others who might be in for some unpleasant 
jail time. I have a lot of normal friends and acquaintances who ran downtown 
yesterday morning and are coming in with tear gas reports - but they seem 
almost giddy about it, and were listing off all the famous people they saw 
and stuff they did. Someone else driving near the seattle center got his 
tires blown out by a booby trap strip that someone had thrown down.      But 
winning is an unusual joy. The TV news in the bay area had either nothing or 
2 minutes on the riots, but NPR was saying just want I wanted, playing 
activists delegates saying that the WTO needs to be seriously reorganized or 
democratized. they aren't going to be able to meet in us or europe again.


>I sure hope so. But to keep it from fraying, a leadership committee
>has to emerge from this scene that at least coordinates the rhetoric
>so that the news media gets it right. Media should never be left to
>think on its own.
>
Clinton totally spinned it into support for his side. Laura Dandria Tyson of 
Berkeley Business school gave this super snide statement about how all the 
protesters are completely clueless and illiterate - a common theme in a lot 
of WSJ articles. there is a similar article in the NYTimes today by T. 
Friedman where he took the tone 'oh, aren't they silly'. I am waiting for 
the media to try to explain the concept of crusties and anarcho punks to the 
country.


>
>I look forward to Clinton's slime tomorrow--some variation of how
>trickle down imperialism provided us with jobs and feeds the starving
>children of India. All happy win-win crap.
>
>And, another thing I noticed was the absence of minority
>people--black, hispanic, and asian groups with something to say on
>this scene and these issues. This means that minority national
>leadership is dragging its feet. What gives here?


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