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December
2, 2000
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The Adventures of Paisley
Blue
I
finally got past that spout of illness and got back to work,
but I've been taking it easy nonetheless. No need to jump
right back to where I was. After all, very colorful things
have been happening lately.
This past Thursday, the
30th of November, was N-30 which was a celebration(?)
or remembrance of the WTO "Battle in Seattle" that happened
last year. On that date in 1999, protestors tried to prevent
the meeting of the members of the World Trade Organization. It
erupted into violence, rioting, and tear gas, as the police
dressed up in riot gear, and over 600 people were arrested.
At that time last year we were living in Las Vegas,
watching this on television. I teased CB mercilessly about his
hometown. Karma...
Fast forward to the year 2000, and
only about 2000 people showed up, as compared to the many more
thousands that attended the event last year. During the
daytime it was very peaceful. The reporters said it seemed
like a carnival atmosphere. But after dark, when many of the
protestors had left, several diehards stayed on. Despite
several warnings by the now-riot-gear-wearing cops, they
decided to continue their protesting. Eventually little
paintball-like bullets full of pepper spray powder were fired
on them, and about 150 folks were arrested.
The rest
of the story is that there were innocent people detained, and
I heard some were even arrested. Their crime was being in the
wrong place at the wrong time, I suppose. Also, being
belligerent to cops who are already tired, antsy, and don't
want to get shot themselves, is just a bad idea. Even the
horses had riot gear.
Now for the bizarre part. We had
theater tickets for that evening. We were going to go see
"Anything Goes" again. CB did not want me to leave the house
Thursday. The only thing I did that day was go to the grocery
store in the morning, so we would have something to eat for
supper that night. As it was, I saw several of the costumed
protestors milling around up there, as I was only a block away
from the Seattle Community College from which one of the
groups marched.
If we had ventured out to the theater
that night, there is no doubt in my mind that somehow we would
have found ourselves detained, at the least. Not that we are
trouble makers, but after reading this journal so far, you
should know how trouble finds us. I'm sooooo glad we
stayed home.
So we watched the Seattle Sonics, under
the supervision of Mr. Sonic, Coach Nate, make a dramatic
comeback in Portland. Their next game, against the Lakers at
the Key Arena was even more exciting. We were hooting and
hollering while watching the Lakers get spanked.
Yesterday, in the bus tunnels underneath downtown,
someone released a pepper spray-like gas in three locations,
around 2:00 pm. CB was in the midst of it, which I did not
know til this morning. He says he is okay, but it made me
shiver just the same. Sometimes life in the big city can be
kinda scary.
On the fun side, this morning tickets
went on sale for Face to Face: Elton John and Billy Joel, as
well as the Backstreet Boys: Black and Blue Tour. The phones
were jumping and the computers were busy! It was a blast!
~Paisley
Blue | | |
