It might shock you to learn that an editorial in The Seattle Times pissed me off. But here we go:
PROTEST is a venerable American right. Sleep in the state Capitol building. Camp out on the Capitol grass. Carry signs. Chant, march, yell, make your point.
It is all part of the political process.
Here are a list of things that The Settle Times Editorial Board finds acceptable: Sleep, camp, carry signs, march, yell, and make a point. You may do these. Yes, the people who you want to persuade will probably ignore you. So will the Seattle Times.
But a protest becomes something else when a group of rowdy people storm or try to force their way into the relatively small foyer in the governor’s office in Olympia, which creates a safety hazard.
OH NO LOUD PEOPLE IN A FOYER! Save us from the Rowdy Foyer People!
So it was last week when a large group of protesters from the Service Employees International Union, upset about looming budget cuts, gathered outside Gov. Chris Gregoire’s office. They had earlier marched around the Capitol campus and demonstrated inside the legislative building.
Thank God less than 1% of them were a bit rowdy (and one probably more serious). Otherwise we might have to spend this prime editorial space talking about the issues they protested. Now we can harrumph.
These protesters wanted to talk to the governor. A lot of people do. A pushing match ensued with State Patrol officers who closed the governor’s door and stood guard outside her office to ensure her safety.
Look, they should be an editorial board. Governors call you up if you’re an editorial board. Senators. Legislators. Business leaders. If you were more polite like our editorial page, then more people would call you up.
Anyway, it goes on like this for a while. And it mentions that one of the people was charged with assault and are accused of elbowing and kicking State Patrol officers. Of course, don’t do that. If the entire editorial was, “hey please don’t kick police officers” it would have been fine. And left them space to debate what the actual budget maybe should look like.
Substitute “Egyptians”, “Cairo’s central square” and “Mubarak” and what do you have? Seems when it happens somewhere else it has a different ring to it.
Let’s protest the Times ass-hattery…
…let’s get together @ Fairview Fanny with picket signs and stuffed dogs. Musn’t forget to clue the teevee stations. Funfunfun.
I suppose one could point out that in November, 2000, the Times did not have an editorial condemning the ‘brooks brothers riot’ in Miami during the contested vote count in Dade County, but then they had bigger things on their little mind at the time…….
@3
It’s the little people that need to be kept in line. The BB Riot helped keep the little people in line.
“let’s get together @ Fairview Fanny with picket signs and stuffed dogs.”
Bad idea with the stuffed dogs. That’s the kind of thing that may get you the collateral damage of a stray bullet….
(Edited: fixed link)
@5..
YIKES!!!
The Seattle Times doesn’t have a lot of stomach for real people anger.
Obviously, we need to protest only in ways those in power can completely ignore. Only by keeping ourselves utterly impotent can we meet with the Times’ approval.
And “violence at a protest” is a really, really low bar. I was at the WTO protests, and we peaceful marchers were attacked by the Seattle Police and the National Guard. Journalists covering the protests were also attacked, as well as non-protesters going about their business on Broadway. Take on the powers-that-be, and you’ll soon “see the violence inherent in the system!”
@7
The Times and the Tacoma News Tribune’s editorial boards seem very into Walter Lippmann, social class, and social control. Everyone must know their place, those above you in society will tell you who you are and where you belong and if you fail to listen to those above you (and surely the editorial boards are above most of their readership) force may be used to show you who you are and where you belong.
That sort of shit makes me want to start building Molotov Cocktails.
You got the job. Stop trying to kiss Goldy’s ass and write something he’d write.
Be your own fucking man!
@10 Isn’t it past your bedtime?
@11 He must have had to get up so his mommy could change the sheets.
This sort of issue confuses the Seattle Times.
They need some “news” to report, and it’s easier to report on a protest than just about anyting else. A reporter shows up, takes a few pictures of people with signs, interviews a couple of protesters, gets a crowd size estimate from the local police, and calls whomever they are protesting against to get a comment. The article practically writes itself.
But then again, the Seattle Times is fighting the battle with technology and, for quite a while now, has been fiercely defending it’s role as the “gatekeeper” of public opinion. They want to control access in both directions: the politicians should consult the newspapers to see what the public wants, and the public should make their thoughts known to the paper through respectful letters to the editors, etc.
So anything which threatens to bypass this “gatekeeper” system brings to vision a bunch of late nineteenth-centurary industrial barrons, in their oak-panneled studies with cigars, engaging in a mutual round of “Hurrump! Hurrup! Hurrump!”