speaking of old material: here is a poem I wrote during the 1999 WTO debacle in Seattle

I walked the streets of Seattle during the first day of the WTO "Riots" in 1999 and I don't think I have ever felt safer, especially as cars had to avoid the area. Things fell apart when the police insisted in "taking back the streets" the first night and outraged the protestors who were overwhelmingly peaceful. Yes there were gangs of so called anarchists dressed in black and with scarves over their faces who broke windows. It would have taken almost no effort on the part of the authorities to stop this, but they didn't, instead they made mass arrests of people whose crime was standing up for the concept of freedom of speech. We spent the rest of the week as an occupied zone. I was stopped and searched regularly as I biked to and from work. The police told me that they were not targeting cyclists, even though I never came across a single car commuter (or even bus rider) who was stopped and searched even once (except City Council member Richard McGiver who is black) . Anyway, here is the poem I wrote that week.

r.i.p.

today i come to bury the rotting corpse of the first amendment, not to praise it,
only words on old parchment it is no longer part of the soul of this society,
if it were relevant to our modern society it would be part of the msoffice suite of applications,

the “liberal” emerald city, let me stop while i wipe the bitter tears of laughter from my eyes,
unquestioningly sacrificed its liberty and civil rights on the altar of the mighty god ORDER,

our threshold for chaos and understanding of its essential role in life is so limited that
we happily leap into the arms of military occupation, blindly follow the mindless orders of uniformed thugs
so that our streets can be kept pristine and safe for commerce uber alles,

let us pray:
may our happy no protest zone protect us from noisy young people with the gall to suggest that commercialism might not be the
highest form of existence,
may our joyous curfew allow our sacred riot police to safely teargas our citizens and arrest them for resisting arrest,
the beautiful union between the civil police and the national guard bears witness to the obsolescence of the bill of rights,
our essential rights are now enshrined in the advertising slogans of nike and macdonald's (and are available on line)

blessed are the peaceful protestors, willing to gassed and arrested to assert their right to assemble and walk the city streets,
for they are young and naïve, and will never get stock options unless they change their antiquated ways,

yeah verily, if the mayor is kind we can all sip lattes and safely shop at pacific place as early as next week.

amen