studio 57. i've been listening studiously to talk radio while i'm at work. to get the independent's perspective i listen to democracy now with amy goodman. to get the corporate side, i listen to everything else. right or left, i'm not sure which side makes less sense to me. sometimes i'll drive home while listening to the conservative station and get so worked up about what the host is saying about a certain issue that i'll get all agitated. but almost as often, i'll hear some liberal loony (not meant to be totally derogative) talking and rationalizing away and i'm thinking "they are just trying to create trouble." clearly i'm not sure which side i stand on, but some things about both angles just make no sense to me.



for example, depending on what your sources were, last week between 300 to 1,000 people were arrested while protesting the republican national committee. everyone can protest, it's their god given right. but at a certain point, these "peaceful" demonstrations just get ridiculous. i understand that protesting is an important weapon and i'm sure it's very effective. however, if you're going to protest, how can you be surprised when you get arrested? i'm sure the police were a bit over zealous in their cattle roundup but i don't think you can expect the police to be overly patient in such a situation. innocent bystanders were taken? well duh. if you're going to stand close enough to the fire to feel the heat, don't be surprised if you get burnt -- even if you were just watching.



a part of me thinks it's slightly wrong for the protestors to be there. part of some group's stated goal was to disrupt the convention and to harass the conventioners. that's wack man. everyone has a right to affiliate with whomever they want to, without having to fight through throngs of people throwing verbal tomatoes at them. i know there were protests at the DNC too but for the most part, the democrats got their chance to have a nice convention, why can't the republicans? to me, it's just disrespectful to take pride in the fact that you can slip past 10,000 security people and onto the convention floor. and then flash your underwear or start chants in an effort to embarass the speaker. have some respect man. sure you may not agree with what they're saying but there's a right way to protest and a wrong way. going on guerilla missions to get beat down by bodyguards is not heroic, it's idiotic. it's screaming for attention instead of earning it.



and of course the police is going to hold the protestors as long as they can. what's the point of arresting people, slapping them on their wrist and then releasing them back into the wild again? that's not how it works man. think about it from the police's perspective. how are they gonna catch and immediately release, and then do it over and over again? from what i've heard, the conditions at pier 57 were nasty and that's kind of wrong but the point isn't for police to catch you, put you up in a hotel and then let you go. they don't want you to stir up trouble again so they're gonna do their best to dissuade you from doing things that will result in you re-visiting detention. isn't that what you would do if you had to hold up some disruptive folk?



sure this is america and the land of the free but there are boundaries. once you start to infringe on other people's liberties and opinions, you should get restrained. everyone has the right to protest but they should also have the right to gather in peace too. everyone and their mother may want bush out of office but show it through your voting, not harassing folk who are supporting something they strongly believe in. i'm not saying the protestors deserved to get locked up but in a way, what did they expect?



and when i say that there are "right" and "wrong" ways to protest, that's just my opinion. people make themselves heard in different ways and we should respect that too. some situations call for peaceful protest, some call for violent protest, whatever it is, just know that as soon as you put yourself out there to support something, people will be lining up to attack you, republicans or democrats alike.



many of the protestors organized via cellphone and text messages. cool eh? do you think it adds credibility to a protestor/demonstrator if they've been arrested? like a rite of passage or a badge of honor? and do you think if a political (or any) organization didn't have the .org address it would be like "oh they ain't big time, they ain't even an .org."