Dear Neil -

I am not rich. I am not drunk. I am not spoiled. I know exactly why I march as do most of the disciplined and dedicated people who I have had the pleasure of standing or marching with through ice and snow,torrent and drought lo these many years. I have as much in common with Molotov cocktail throwers as you do with Lt. Calley. Pigeon holes are for the birds my friend.

Most of the "movement" people I know have come to their actions through study and prayer and have put their lives, freedom, safety, reputations, etc. on the line for absolutely no reason other than because we thought it was the right thing to do. We have faced police actions, beatings, chemical agents, dogs, surveillance, harrasment, imprisonment and vilification from the media, pundits and our own fellow citizens. It's a tough job, but somebody's got to do it.

During the G-20 gathering and attendant protests, the police used indiscriminate crowd control devices such as sound machines and tear gas that had a far reaching, negative impact on a large sector of Pittsburgh - anarchists, pacifists, shopkeepers, old people, workers trying to go about their day, children, dogs, cats, birds.... all equally vulnerable to the out of proportion response of the police department.

As I attempted to describe above, there are people who are engaging in provocateur behavior that serves the purpose of providing justification for extra police tactics. Those police tactics in turn prompt people to come out to demonstrate against the creeping militarization of our society. It goes around and around and around. There are very few people at these big demonstrations who engage in the disruptive behavior the media tends to focus on. The far, far greater presence is made up of thoughtful and deliberate people of all walks of life - young and old - who brave the possibility of harm by attending these demonstrations.

There are serious questions needing answering about how the economy of our world is to be shaped. We need accurate information and we are not getting it. With the attention focused on a few rowdy "anarchists" who talks about what goes on inside?

One of my many concerns about the official "globalization" agenda is that it presumes to impose an industrialized model upon many agrarian cultures out of a paternalistic belief that "development" is better.

The FTAA treaty contained provisions that provides for punishment of any country that imposes stricter protections for the environment and/or the workers. If said protections have an impact on company profits, the countries can be sued. I have a problem with that. Those are just a couple of reasons I want to know what is going on with the Corporatocracy of Globalization.

No one can dispute that we live in a globalized world. Who does or doesn't get to sit at the table to decide the fates of civilizations and the distribution of the planetary common wealth has everything to do with the dissent on the streets.


Your sister in Hope,
Joyce