Doug - I would have been similarly disgusted by the destructive actions of those antiwar protestors you saw in DC, although I was bitterly opposed to that war.

I'm afraid there are generally assholes on both sides of any given issue, and they give the rest of the people a bad name.

My idea of protest is to speak out, to write letters and articles, and perhaps to march in the streets, but NEVER to destroy property or inflict violence on people.

There are always individuals out there who are willing and eager to be destructive, and are just looking for an excuse. I believe that is mainly because they are angry inside about their own failures in life...the failure to achieve success, happiness, whatever...and they want to take it out on someone else, some scapegoat.

Just yesterday I was in the grocery lineup, and the guy ahead of me inadvertently stepped back and I guess he caught his heel on the front of my shopping cart. He reacted with a sudden burst of anger and pushed the cart back violently. I wasn't looking his way at the time, so I didn't see his eyes, just caught the incident in my peripheral vision, so to speak. He then walked away very fast toward the bank machine, muttered something, and then came back to the checkout. Then he got in a rambling conversation with the checkout girl about how he had lost $500 dollars somehow, through some misadventure or someone's dishonesty or something. The girl was trying to be polite and calculate his grocery bill. He then got on the subject of "people who rob little old ladies" and how he WISHED he could get hold of one of them and absolutely beat the crap out of him...this appeared to be his keenest desire in life at that moment.

I was rapidly becoming aware that this guy was teetering on the edge of losing it. He was filled with pointless anger. The girl was aware of it too, and she just kept agreeing with him, and eventually got him through the checkout, and off he went.

I thought "there is a guy who may very well hurt or kill someone any time soon, and he probably doesn't even have the slightest idea why".

Maybe he was once a young protestor who thought he did know why. Maybe not.

Anyway, there are some people out there with either not much maturity or not much self-control, and when there's a demonstration some of them can get out of hand.

Steve - Well, I live in Orillia, Ontario, and Carol lives fairly near Washington DC, I believe...so you'd have to make 2 trips unless she comes up here for another visit. Thanks for the kind words.

- LH

- LH