my hands are sore

SF and the Bay Area is the most liberal part of the nation. The SF mayor is against the war. The Berkeley and Oakland mayors are against it. Our congresswomen are against it. Just what is the justification for closing down SF? Wash DC I can understand. The Fed Buiding I can understand. But why are you screwing the lives of people who don't disagree with you? Why screw over some woman who needs to get to her day care to pick up her kids? Why alienate moderates who support your cause? Why force the city to spend a half a million dollars each day on overtime when that money is so desperately needed for other areas -- homelessness, education.

Why can't you make the same message with a peaceful, non-alienating display of overwhelming support for ending the war -- a huge rally and peaceful response?


I hate this war. And I hate your strategy. I don't feel sympathy for your hurt hands. I feel angry at your stupid acts.

The cops are using torture to intimidate the protestors. It takes true courage to stand up to the kind of brutality which they've been dishing out the last couple of days - to intense pain and to threats that they'll break your bones if you don't cooperate.

Standing up for what you believe in is never a stupid act.

good job fighting for what you believe in! i had a similar experience getting arrested yesterday and feel sore from the 'pain compliance'. they pinched me repeatedly under my arms leaving huge black bruses... kinda like little kids on the playground.

why do i feel the need to do this stuff you ask?

i do this because i am outraged. i feel this war is so wrong that it is my moral obligation to fight against it however i can. why san francisco? it is the center of government and commerce in the bay area. what you think i have the funds/free time to fly to a DC protest?

and the sad part is, it seem our voices STILL aren't being heard. just do a scan of pop media and see how biased and slanted it is! this culture is brainwashed into supporting a coporate war!!!!!!!!!!

I was walking down the sidewalk, following police directives to stay on the sidewalk, peacefully using my voice to say murder in IRAQ is not ok in my name, when the police surrounded us and arrested us.

THEY blocked the sidewalk so we could not peacefully continue our march to OUR city hall, they refused to let us disperse, they refused to let us pass on the sidewalk. They already told us not to be in the street so we were on the sidewalk.

Guess what. THEY arrested us. THEY created a confrontation, THEY used our tax dollars to heard hundreds of people on buses and take them to a pier and keep them for hours.

THEY only solve about 25% of the crimes in this city. THEY have violent off duty drunk officers attacking people on the street. THEY are disrupting this city trying to salvage their sad pathetic reputation. WE WERE FOLLOWING THEIR COMMANDS, on the sidewalks, peaceful.

On Thursday THEY blocked intersections where no marchers were present.

Do you have any first hand knowledge of the situation?

Want inconvience? Try picking shrapnel out of your dying baby... Being bombed is really f*ing inconvenient to the act of living. Waiting 15 minutes is only too much for spoiled arrogant people who are not at any real risk.

I, too, was arrested today. I am not a young man, and I was part of the Vietnam peace movement. My actions today were not random, instead having great purpose.

It was crucial to show the world that not all Americans are idiots blindly following Bush over the cliff, and that we are not going to sit on our hands. By shutting down a major city, we did just that. The outside world was "shocked and awed" by this display of dissent, and now knows that we're NOT all insane here in America. As a country, we have won back a little of the dignity that Bush has shred like confetti, and right now, a little means a lot.

For those who were inconvenienced, I ask, did you not see the signs everywhere in the city? You were told that San Francisco would be shut down, and that you should call in sick, and take the day off. If you doubted the veracity of local protestors to make good on their promise, then you haven't been paying very good attention in the time you've lived here.

But, take solace in the fact that you played your parts very well by creating snarled and tangled traffic throughout the city, and giving the protestors plenty to work with. We thank you for that, but suggest more alternative-powered and public transportation in the near future.

> I hate this war. And I hate your strategy. I don't feel sympathy for your hurt hands. I feel angry at your stupid acts.

Okay, then what strategy do you propose? So far I've heard:

a) do more legal, peaceful marches
b) do teach-ins
c) get into politics, maybe you can change things in the next election and have "better" politicians in office in 2005

Option a isn't working alone, same for b, and c won't work in time to save the hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of people that will be killed in Iraq, and then in Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, etc. as the US rolls across the Middle East.

So, tell us, please, do you have any other ideas? We honestly would like to hear them.

Solidarity means having solidarity with ALL people- whether you consider them activists or not. Do you think all this violence and disruption is going to make people or leaders listen? It just gives them an excuse to be BIGGER fascists instead of winning over more people. You've made your point, now back off and pick your battles wisely. If the police are using brutality and falsely arresting you make hell over it- to whoever will listen. But don't think that fighting more, getting arrested more is going to help you stop that.

All these strategies are still good. It takes time and it will work. We need to increase numbers of supporters everywhere- and SF is hurting that. As people see the death and injustice of this war they start to wonder- I've seen it in person. We CANNOT squander that opportunity!

Remember- moderates can be pulled over even to the far left. I'm proof positive. You just have to educate (teach-ins), get people involved (marches- for everyone not just for the militant), and with creating democracy (political involvement). Once people see they have a right to stand up for the kind of world they want, they just might do that. Isn't that what we really want? A world of peace, class equality and justice for all people?

How about solidarity with ALL people - not just whether they live in America and are annoyed about being late to get to WORK for Chrissake's? How about solidarity with the people who are getting murdered by the US war machine, and the people who will get murdered by the machine as it turns its attention to the other countries in the Middle East?

It's not about getting leaders to listen - they're already deaf. It's about increasing the political, social, and economic costs of the war to the point where elites - the businesses losing money - will pressure the leaders to end it.

And it's about inspiring the rest of the country and the rest of the world to join us in nonviolent militancy to END THIS FUCKING WAR!