Bubble Brigade in San Francisco

  Of the hundreds of thousands marching for peace in San Francisco--only some fifty people broke ranks. These "anarchists" threw bottles and overturned a couple newsstands before sitting in the center of Market Street.
   A woman standing beside me at the crosswalk, said she teaches Political Theory. She left her kids at softball practice in the Oakland suburbs to attend the event. "This is what I was afraid of," she said, "All of us Moderates marching for peace, but what happens? These protesters get all the media attention and the message gets lost."
  Her distinction between marchers and protesters struck me as odd. Were not all of us protesting the war?
  Earlier, I marched with my sign IMPEACH BUSH, observing the people around me and their celebratory attitude. I wasn't at all surprised when the next day, the San Francisco Chronicle accurately described the cheerful mood of this somber event as that of "gigantic block parties." I was not surprised either, when the paper called the sit-down in the center of the street an unfortunate deviation from an otherwise peaceful event. Doubtless even the San Francisco Chronicle has its limits as a liberal publication. They must keep up the warm, cuddly feelings of a anti-war peace march/celebration. Hey, otherwise a big advertiser might pull an ad!
  An anti-war celebration? Is this not a contradiction, particularly as the momentum for war increases daily? A last gasp before the screams begin? The speakers were verbose and their messages full of logic and conviction. The signs raised were incredibly clever, and everyone got their message through whether it was anti-war, anti-mullet fishing, anti-circumcision, anti-gay-bashing....but the Anarchists blocking the traffic had no slogans, just action.
   The trouble began when several police officers told the more radical looking ones leaving the event, not to cross the intersection to make way for the traffic. Naturally the kids took it for a challenge.
  No sooner than the Anarchists had begun their acts of civil disobedience did a large contingent of black motorcycles and armored vehicles arrive. Hundreds of riot police surrounded the kids who were by now shouting "NO!" to war while banging on drums in a plethora of tribal rhythms. A truly impressive display...maybe for Mad TV.
  I stood with the kids until an officer from the several lines of riot police shoved me to the sidewalk with his baton. The Political Science teacher left, shaking her head, upset because she would be late to pick up her kids at the ballpark. A peaceable young girl stood next to me, blowing bubbles that drifted into the street. One bubble landed on the helmet of one of the riot police. "See what I can do," she said, cheerfully.
  "Powerful protest," I replied. "We should call it the Bubble Brigade!"
  Meanwhile, Rastafarian music from a street band moved aloft, loosening the tension in the air.
  The riot police soon packed the Anarchists into a bus. They were taken off to jail and traffic restored. The Bush administration, viewing the events from around the world, is also engaged in crowd control. War if you think about it is a form of crowd control.
  Recalcitrant foreigners who present a possible future, "pre-emptive" threat are separated from the crowds and challenged to fight. The face-off is not only between Bush and Saddam Hussein or his cronies, but is also a stand-off at the intersection between modernity and traditionalism. This is a fight no one will win so long as the powerful must feel it is their job to engage in crowd control, keeping every American outpost throughout the world "safe for democracy."
  Few address the problem of the loss of familiar beliefs and passions, whether in the peoples of Saudi Arabia or in the kids from the suburbs looking for a reason to live aside from economic aims.  
  I question whether the leaders of the US realize that the people who do not want to see their countries turned into American outposts, are legitimately peeved. Yet Bush compared the millions protesting the war throughout the world as mere "focus groups."  
  No doubt Bush is laughing at the others on the sidelines who march as a part of the Bubble Brigade, as the bubbles blown into the air are blotted out by the darkness of the war ahead.  

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