Now I know this is 2011 and not 1968, which was probably the watershed year or the benchmark for all protests, but still Angela Davis was there and I didn't know. I was busy being domesticated, comfortable and warm. When did I become so old and sedate?
There would have been a time when just mention that anyone was shouting something against someone and I would have been there. I might not have been on the right side, or any side, but I would have been there witnessing people standing up for what they believed were their needs, their wants, their rights. But those days I guess maybe slowly drifting away as I become more and more settled, middle-class and bougie.Anyway, I was at the protests in Philadelphia about 4 weeks ago when they first started. I was trying to figure out what they were about and why it was that I could no longer find the nerve or the energy to fight "the man" with them. I remember standing behind one of the placards that the protestors would hold up now and again when someone pulled out his camera and motioned me to lift up my arm, maybe Black Panther style, and show my defiance for authority. I just laughed and walked away. I had my own pictures to take. Plus if I was going to get a beat down by the police like they do in other cities, I'd prefer to get it done in New York where the money from the law-suit would be a hell of a lot more.
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| Police Commissioner Ramsey looks on at the protestors |
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| Occupy Philly marches around City Hall |
Interesting observation and one that I'm sure is shared by many, across all generations.
ReplyDeleteI feel you. This past weekend my wife and I spent the weekend in Columbia, SC where my daughter is a junior at The University of South Carolina. There Occupy Columbia was in full effect. There was a time when I would have been out there in the cold leading the charge. However this past weekend I just hurried to my warm hotel room. I guess I messed around and got old.
ReplyDeleteAngela Davis? Really? Bless her still radical heart!
ReplyDeleteBut don't be TOO hard on yourself, man. *Fist Up* Old Revoluntionaries never die, at least in spirit.
*Fist UP HIGH!*
Somewhere there still lurks within some internal electric shock of reactionary emotion or deep-seated resentment/anger whenever we hear of or witness some injustice, some blatant wrongdoing or when we take a deep whiff of the stank wafting from the status quo.
True one might protest differently, wear one's hair shorter, march in w/less forceful stride or scream less loudly, but the spirit of a TRUE revoluntionary NEVER dies.
One Love.
WOW... I THOUGHT IT LOOKED MORE LIKE DC. WISH I WAS THERE, LOOKS LIKE IT WAS WELL WORTH BEING COLD.
ReplyDeleteRoger - This is just the eternal struggle of the weak against the the privileged. Now if only I could be like Tom Joad in the Grapes of Wrath and say, "...wherever there's a fight, so hungry people can eat, I'll be there. Wherever there's a cop beatin' up a guy, I'll be there. I'll be in the way guys yell when they're mad. I'll be in the way kids laugh when they're hungry and they know supper's ready, and when the people are eatin' the stuff they raise and livin' in the houses they build, I'll be there, too."
ReplyDeleteReggie - I trying not to look at is as being old anymore, but mature and sensible. And if I had a choice between being cold and hungry or warm and comfortable with maybe a little overpriced room service, I might have gone for the hotel room too.
One - You make me feel like Che Guevara except with a touch of gout and a pack of Viagra in his back pocket. Viva la Revolución!
Shar - Well when I took those pictures it was still in the upper 60's. The temperature hadn't dropped yet and the rains hadn't come.
Sorry you missed seeing Angela in person. Nice pics from when the protests first started. My two favorite signs are "Fox Lies" and the one which states that the protests cross party lines.
ReplyDeleteMalcolm - I don't really watch Fox News. I tried it but it wasn't my kind of thing so I couldn't really say if they lie or not; all I do know is that they are as biased as all get out.
ReplyDeleteI did like the second sign you mentioned, I think it says it all. The thing's not about being anti-Republican or anti-Democrat, it's about being anti-status quo. And to misquote Howard Beale in the movie Network, "We're mad as Hell and we're not going to take it anymore."
Of course I'm no stranger to protest and I'm had my share of picket lines, rallies. protest, sitins and so on however; I like to stand side by side with some oof the Occupy Wall Streeters or the 99%.
ReplyDeleteFunny you'd mention Angela Davis she was in Madison a few weeeks ago along with her sister and I tell you i have no idea what page she is on these days.