10 years later

Today marks the 10th anniversary of the WTO's stint in Seattle, which sparked the Battle in Seattle. The morning of November 30, 1999, I awoke in my then-boyfriend's apartment in downtown Seattle and we celebrated the first anniversary of our first date. His apartment was half a block from the Paramount Theatre so we had front-row seats for the action: the line of school buses barricading the front of the theater, the folks dressed up as turtles trying to crawl over the bus barricade, the line of police in their riot gear. At some point, I decided to brave the insanity to go the half-block to the bus tunnel and go to work. By nightfall, downtown was locked down until the end of the conference.

Even with the initial on-the-spot exposure, the whole event seemed surreal. Seattle is normally a very safe city, and it was a strain to have the uncertainty in that safety with its lack of normalcy. The looting of downtown storefronts was one of the most upsetting things to me. It tainted the legitimacy of the protesters message, and heightened the unlawfulness, putting everyone at greater danger.

I'm not sure even now that I have a good sense of what, if anything, was accomplished on either side 10 years ago. I remember another old boyfriend saying, in the wake of the Rodney King verdict, that he couldn't believe people weren't in the streets protesting. In general, we Americans are too comfortable to do that, although it seems like there have been more local protests in the last 10 years than in the '90's in general. The Bush administration, and thus most Republicans, largely ignored the war protesters. The Democrats seem to be more swayed by the Tea Party protesters. I wish they would instead acknowledge the difference of opinion without caving to them, since so much of their protestation is not based on reality.

Protesting has a place to raise awareness of issues, but there has to be more that happens to affect real change. I'd like Americans to be able to have discussions about the issues that face our countries, rather then the incivility that seems to endemic in the so-called Town Hall meetings going on. What happened to I may not agree with you but I will fight to the death your right to say it? Working together despite differences is a cornerstone of what America has been and should be. Can't we all just get along?