Silly words for serious things.

An acquaintance participated in a recent protest in Winnipeg against Canada's participation in Afgan-eee-stan fighting the Tali-waly-ban. She perceived what I did a few years ago when I walked from Portage & Main to the Leg and vowed to never attend a protest ever again: The complete lack of focus. People have had their causes handed to them through so many channels of media that they've lost their cognitive ability to separate one from the other. So if I want to join with a group of people for the purpose of publicly voicing my opposition to a situation I don't agree with, I must acquiesce and align myself with those I would rather not. I left that cold Saturday in the winter of 2005 wondering what lesbians have to do with the US invading Iraq. Will there be lesbians in Iraq who will be dying? Is the US only sending in their finest lesbian warriors? Are lesbians even allowed to live in Iraq? Same goes for the local anarchist club. In fact the anarchists should be for an invasion: one less government laying down "rules"... man. With all the anarchy going on right now in Iraq I'm surprised all the anarchists in Winnipeg are still here instead of there. If one was into anarchy wouldn't you want to be where the anarchy is goin' on? Ditto for CUPE. What do unions have to do with the US getting their war on? I think I was once a member of CUPE when I taught computer science labs at the U of M. Sure, I went to the meetings because I got free pizza and there was a babe from my 4th year sociology course who frequently showed up, but their visible presence at a protest seemed a tidy bit presumptuous.

I think protests are necessary for the right issues and can effectively stop bad people from doing bad things, but throwing so many causes into the fray does nothing to further another one, it merely dilutes it until it has morphed into a chorus of irrelevant banter of the hippie persuasion. And nobody wants that. Trust me.