once i was a part of something historic.

[papergreen]

slate sez: why you're not protesting the iraq war.

also, the world once said no to war: feb 15 2003fun fact: bright eyes (i know, scoff scoff, but some of us were pretty into him in high school) apparently wrote the song "old soul song (for a new world order)" about the protest above. which was i believe my first

Comments

[jessebeller]

it was so historic that it...had zero effect on u.s. military involvement in iraq.

kind of like all those times i voted.

[yanatonage]

I think that the total ineffectiveness of those protests are the reason I am skeptical of traditional activism to this day.

In the second grade, some of the other kids put together a petition to have one of the lunchladies fired, because she was mean. There were over a hundred signatures gathered from kids on the playground. The principal held the petition up the next day in front of the cafeteria and announced that the lunchlady would probably be getting a promotion because kids calling her mean meant she was "doing her job right."

The response to those protests felt kind of the same way.

[day214]

best allegory ever

[papergreen]

while that is quite a fitting metaphor, it is also a pretty shitty lesson to teach children.

[jdtnirvana]

wow! That's a hideous school! When is it the lunch lady's responsibility to be mean? What is her job? What is it she's trying to teach kids about life?

Anyways, there are weekly protests that I don't attend because basically I feel it is not worthwhile. I'll attend the larger protests in LA when I can (living at least 2 hours away with traffic, it becomes an all day affair). I do agree though that there should be more effective activist tools. If Americans are viewing the Iraq war and the admin more negatively than Vietnam times, how come we are still there? How come someone with a relatively vast knowledge of middle eastern history, specifically in Iraq come up with a plan that is promoted by activists. Fucking shirts with some "revolutionary" person on it?

[jdtnirvana]

ps- my friend moved to NY and is into art that could be seen as really offensive or out of the norms. Do you have any suggestions for museums/places with art that she could visit?