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I have felt like hiding the last couple of months since I was in Ottawa. In fact it has felt more like taking a step back to figure it all out. In fact I have thought little or nothing about globalization, protesting, tear gas, and other such things since November. I have been living my life, trying to figure out what that is all about right now.
In one email to a friend I expressed frustration at not knowing what I was doing. She sent the perfect reply. We are living our lives, that is whatwe are doing. She didn't say much else about it, but even from an email Itook it from her tone, that is more than enough. That is what I have beendoing.
I have not been actively keeping up with news, so when I received word two weeks ago about a meeting of the World Economic Forum in New York City this week, and associated protests, I was taken a bit off guard. I had made the commitment to myself to be involved and I know that it is something thatI have to do to be happy, but I have been busy living my life. I wasn't ready for it.
It has taken me until yesterday to read about the WEF, and the protests,and to start forming opinions. It has all gelled in me today, so I can feeland express where I am.
I am Angry!!! I am so angry. I thought as I ran this morning, in the sunand snow, that the WEF has no business meeting in NY, exploiting the possibility that that is the place where protesters are most likely to be afraid of protesting. The WEF has been chased out of the small Swiss town they had been meeting in, by protesters and hackers in the last few years. The worst of it is,they are a prime terrorist target. 1200 or so leaders from corporations allover the world, and President Bush, and Tony Blair. They are more a symbolof the capitalist system that was attacked on September 11, than the twintowers were. This group has no business meeting, in my humble opinion, butI think we can all agree that they have no business meeting in one of thelargest population centers in the world, especially the one american citythat has been a repeated target of terrorist attacks in the last few years.Every citizen of the five boroughs should be on the street sending this grouphome for their own safety. I am not saying that we should be afraid of terrorism.We should go about our daily lives. Risk Management theory would call havingthe WEF around a bad idea. There is a big difference between life as usual,and global corporate business as usual.
So I am angry, so angry. Maybe spring has brought out some testosterone.Maybe I have good reasons to be angry. No matter what it is all about, itis not the message I will take to New York. I have the clearest ideas I havehad yet about the movement I am participating in. I personally can not stopacting out, I can net rest and Be in my life until there are peace, economicand social justice, and love in the world. There are many more things thathave to happen. Education, universal human rights and respect, universalhealth care and nutrition, all follow from very basic values, that I holdas a part of me.
I go to New York to show that I am one more person standing up for what I believe. I go to New York because it is the only way I will ever be a peace in my life. I go to New York to learn yet more about democracy, and how it plays out on the streets of a free nation. I go to New York to carry a larger banner:
PEACE
For more info on what is going on in NYC, and background on the WEF, visit NYC indymedia center, and followlinks you are interested in.
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