My son works in Seattle right next to the Convention Center, so he's been going through a nightmare every day to get to and from work. He has called me every night to report "from the front," and has remarked several times on how restrained the police officers seemed to be. He is a member of a union shop, so he's sensitive to labor issues, and he said he'd talked iwth the police officers around the building where he works and they seemed pretty much in agreement with a lot of what the protestors were standing up for.

However, he said a bunch of 'teeny-bopper hooligans' had come in and just gone on a rampage, as though it were 'an out of control frat party on spring break,' and he absolutely didn't respect that. But he said most people he's talked to can make that distinction and believe it wasn't the political people who were raising such hell -- in fact, some of the "crowd control" came about because the political people put a stop to some of the rampage their fellows in the street were doing.

But ... I think much of the effectiveness of this week's events will hinge on how the labor activists seize on this public awareness to educate people about the labor practices they want to see eradicated. Most people really don't have a clue what the protest is about, but if those who are objecting to WTO practices, or to those of some of the WTO members, could step into the gap now and say, "This is what is happening that we disagree with..." then maybe something very positive could come out of it.

I certainly don't think we all need to be isolatonists, but I also don't want to think that some child in Pakistan sacrificed his or her childhood to make the latest chotchke I've bought, or that some political patriot in China has been laboring to make that new piece of carryon luggage I purchased. It seems we ought to be able to have free trade AND protections for labor. Call me an idealist ...

WW