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Indybay Feature

SF: A protest rooted in ignorance?

by xSFlowerx
A disturbing morning at the protest. I'm going back to bed.
I am back home after a disturbing morning. I wanted to go out and protest GMO food. What I discovered instead was a scene where I began sympathizing with the police. Let me explain. When I got to Moscone around 8PM, the scene felt very strange. I got separated from my group of 4 other activists from Sacramento. We are here staying with my mom. I began wandering around. I saw a professional-looking woman crying on the sidewalk. Two police officers were with her talking on their radios. I asked if she were okay and she said she was a multiple sclerosis researcher and why were we doing this (she assumed I was an activist because of how I look). She told me she was trying to find a cure for a disease that crippled her younger brother. Then, the police noticed me and told me to leave or I would be subject to search and possible arrest. The researcher told me to just go. I wandered past a group of activists at the barricades. They were yelling for police to arrest other people going into the conference. One young person in a mask pointed at an older woman going into the conference and screamed "send her to abu ghraib!" I went and wandered into a cafe on Market Street that has internet. I read the SFgate report and when I really thought about it, I had real problems with what was going on. Are we really here to terrorize or "shut down" research? My father had a terminal illness that affected our entire family my whole life, and so talking even so briefly with the researcher caused an emotional outburst in myself. I've now returned to my mom's house and I'm undecided about going back out. I think we need to have more critical discussion about this. In the days leading up to the protest, I heard a lot about shutting down the conference, stopping it from functioning, a lot about GMO food, but is that all that's going on here?
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TITLE
AUTHOR
DATE
just wondering
Wed, Jun 23, 2004 7:50AM
five days, still no answer
Wed, Jun 23, 2004 7:31AM
now you're talking
Fri, Jun 18, 2004 12:48AM
Robert Sprye
Thu, Jun 17, 2004 11:58PM
cosmic vibrations
Thu, Jun 17, 2004 11:39PM
since you asked . . .
Thu, Jun 17, 2004 8:06PM
so, so glad...
Thu, Jun 17, 2004 4:48PM
Robert Sprye
Thu, Jun 17, 2004 4:32AM
pointer
Thu, Jun 17, 2004 3:52AM
Robert Sprye
Thu, Jun 17, 2004 12:13AM
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