City at War

[arisbe]

I have not been downtown since the bellringing around the WTC Saturday night. Reading this entry by luxperpetua makes me glad I have been able to remain uptown and in the Bronx, where it appears I will be teaching remedial English, in spite of having my advanced degrees in higher and adult education rather than literature. Which means I need to finish the essay I am writing on the Quakers doublequick -- my editor has asked for fairly massive revisions, though nothing that won't improve it enormously. But those of you who don't live in New York should check out the action as reported above, and ask yourself whether this is the country you grew up in.

Comments

[kibbles.livejournal.com]

The Ring of Hope, bringing light around Manhattan for peace and justice, August 31 from 8:30 to 9:30 P.M. Bring flashlights and join Quakers, First Avenue between 14th and 18th Streets. Friends are invited to gather at 15 Rutherford Place at 7:15 P.M. We walk together to First Avenue.

I wanna hit that, tonight, thinking of peaceful things to do.

And as for the link there -- yeah, the police have been like that for a long time. It IS the country I grew up in. It was 15 years ago that a cousin was kicked in the nuts by a cop and when he spit, got a ticket for spitting. In HS, kids got beaten by cops, sure. . .kids. Hell, I got picked up by them because I wouldnt cut class. Stupid story, but true. Nothing like scaring teenaged girls. When I ran away from home at 13. . .they didn't help me then. This is the country I grew up in. :(

[joffridus.livejournal.com]

Very disturbing.

The most interesting thing, for me, is that all this hullabaloo is for a PARTY CONVENTION. That is, it's for a group of people that's not even officially part of our nation's governmental system. They're NOWHERE in the Constitution.

So how many New York City people are being put out/scared/scarred/threatened by all this, and then having to pay for it, to boot!

[contentlove.livejournal.com]

Yes, this is the country I grew up in.

http://www.livejournal.com/users/contentlove/410509.html

[a1an.livejournal.com]

hmmm...good post!

[amade.livejournal.com]

I'd say, like the others, to some degree it's always been here. But we have even less excuse now, and people are just more...accepting of it, I guess. Anything in the name of safety, right?

FASCISM ARRIVES

[publius-aelius.livejournal.com]

I have formed an irrevocable resolution that, if George Bush is re-elected President, I will do everything I can to ensure that I'm not living in the United States of America at the time of the NEXT Presidential election, in 2008. That's because I believe that even the last remnants of American democracy will be in shreds, and that a uniquely American form of fascism will have tightened its grip on this country. I also am doing my best to persuade the people I love to get out, too.

[dancing-gator.livejournal.com]

Whoa.

what price freedom?

[a1an.livejournal.com]

is a good question to ask...but i doubt the SWAT and sharpshooters were there to harass citizens but to dissuade terrorists..."the times are a changing" and our enemy is no longer a conventional one...just ask the citizens of Israel...