How I love it when people who want to promote tolerance and open-mindedness and freedom instantly come down hard on someone who's not in their camp.

The fact of the matter is, there are always multiple sides to every issue, and it's very rare when one is all good and another is all bad.

There were opposing, environmental groups that went through the paperwork to get included as -part- of the WTO activities. Sometimes, when dealing with a professional organization, it helps to rise to the professional level yourself, rather than use intimidation look-at-me-I'm-antiestablishment! tactics. The people I feel most sorry for are the legitimately peaceful and knowledgeble protesters who have now had all their hard work ruined by the shameful, violent, and destructive actions of a few. There -were- peaceful protestors putting themselves up as a human shield between the riot cops and the rioting protestors, to try to keep either side from getting hurt. -Those- are the people who I feel deserve my respect and lauding, not the people who were there to be part of the 'scene' because it was 'cool.' I full believe there were many people standing around DT after curfew who didn't know/care what the policies of the WTO were that they were protesting about.

Also, this whole cops-are-evil mentality makes me sick. All people who are for 'good causes' are saints, but the people who (except for a rotten few) regularly put their lives at risk to protect others are evil. Disgusting.

In fact, I've not heard anybody but -one- person here make anything more than a crudely general statement about what it is that they feel is so bad about the WTO (other than someone mentioning child labor. It would be more correct to state that they are frustrated that the WTO does not impose sanctions against child labor for its members--the WTO itself has no jurisdiction as to which countries tacitly or outright allow child labor. In fact, it may shock you to know that the US consents to child labor in agricultural venues, and ignores it in many other places in the US)

Personally, I think the anger you've seen is directed at the people who don't know what they're against other than the nebulous boogeyman known as the 'establishment', and the troublemakers who didn't care about the WTO at all. Nothing, -absolutely nothing- excuses mob riots, violence, or destruction of property. You don't want the police to bash your skull in for the slightest infraction do you? You want them to respect your civil liberties? Then respect your fellow citizens like you'd like to be respected, and don't destroy property or vandalize, or create a health hazard of broken glass and smoke from burning fires at intersections. To do less makes you a big, huge, neon-glowing hypocrite. So you have a right to tie up traffic made up of working people who are excercising their right to -not protest- something they don't feel compelled to. Oh, that's right, if they're not with you, then they MUST support slave labor and prison labor and child labor and the nuking of the environment. Do you have to be boorish and selfish, in order to protest?

Am I a fan of the WTO? Hell no. But I do things other than protest and get arrested. I'll bet I'm more educated about the policies and procedures of the WTO than a general majority of the people who were blocking the streets and burning newspaper vending machines are. Just because I think the violent and overly-disruptive activities of the protesters were a violation of the citizens of Seattle's 'rights' doesn't mean I -must- be a fan of the WTO or a Rushite or a gun-toting-evil-NRA-badgrrl-capitalist. I live here, and our 'guests' endangered a lot of people's lives and livelihood. And trust me, their point was lost in the destruction.

If you really want to be doing something to influence the WTO, use your money and resources to help fund NGOs and other groups that work in those countries and with those goverments, and don't buy the products of the major corporations that are part of it. Whoops, I guess that might require a little more work than borrowing a sign and hooting at people in the streets. :P Never mind.

Grumpy, fed up, and not-very-amused, AF