There is one more element in protest violence which we saw plenty of during the Viet Nam era, agent provocateurs, civilians maybe but back then we found the plenty were in law enforcement. Another tactic to end protests back then was for police to actually start trouble.


As far as San Francisco going broke, who's the one holding the war money that should be earmarked for the current domestic crisis?


The inconvenience of a traffic delay, please, all these protests were well broadcasted, but thank you for being there & helping to make the protest more effective.


To allow the war to persist & not protest because it has already started makes little sense to me. I could see how Bush may have pushed this along a little faster to recoup his popularity by becoming a war time president, how much longer could he have waited? Campaigns are beginning to start up & his political life is on the line?


There's a reason that Civil disobedience, a non violent form of protest was practiced by the likes of Gandhi & many others, it worked, both in saving lives without taking any & giving people a way to express there anger in a constructive way. It's one of the only ways possible in these times for the Citizenry to be heard when they're being completely ignored. The other form of protest is to revolt & I don't believe there's anyone asking for that (yet) but I'd suspect that our founding fathers have not been resting well as of late.


It's the patriotic duty of all US citizens to not follow their government without question. To get behind the government because it must be doing what's best for "We the people" or because it's our duty as a true patriot to back whatever happens just because we're at war. The following is not to incite revolt but to just express how much our founding fathers & our forefathers where so suspicious of governments that do not listen to the will of the people & who'd deprive it's population of it's liberties.



"... God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion. The people cannot be all, and always, well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented, in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions, it is lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty. ... And what country can preserve its liberties, if it's rulers are not warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to the facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure."


-Thomas Jefferson, Nov. 13, 1787


"This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or their revolutionary right to dismember it or overthrow it."
-Abraham Lincoln, First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1861
"Our safety, our liberty depends on preserving the Constitution of the United States as our fathers made it inviolate. The people of the US are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts - Not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution"


-Abraham Lincoln


"The people never give up their liberties but under some delusion."
-Edmund Burke, 1784 speech
"They that give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
-Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania, 1759
"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms. The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government."


-Thomas Jefferson, Proposed Virginia Constitution, 1776, Jefferson Papers 344


Declaration of Independence:


We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.


Declaration of Sentiments:


We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights governments are instituted, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of those who suffer from it to refuse allegiance to it, and to insist upon the institution of a new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.


Excuse me for this ending up so long.

Barry