Protesting gone bad
You see it all out here in the Bay Area. The term anything goes applies to every day life on the streets of SF and Oakland in a way only Northern California residents understand. And that goes for the political protestors as well.
I've seen people protest the War on Terror. I've seen people protest Israel. I've seen people chain themselves to benches in protest of George Bush. Hell, I've even seen people arrested for blocking traffic on Market Street protesting Starbucks. Starbucks for gods' sake!!! It's just a darn latte people!
So it shouldn't surprise me to read a story about a woman who is schizophrenically posting conspiracy theory messages on her car, her yard and the roof of her home. What is surprising is how things like this are relatively ignored as every day life.
"Bush is Al Qaeda" one message reads on her car. "Bush is killer, NY was victim" is another happy message. "A worldwide mafia group (governments) r killing, controlling prices, creating poverty and suffering" is painted on her quaint little roof.
I suppose everyone has a right to speak their mind. But there is a point when your right begins to intrude on my right to a peaceful life. Reading blasphemous crap on the rooftop of a home is that point. And so is the exposure to the shear stupidity of a large number of these nut job protestors. Don't get me wrong, they're entertaining for the most part. I'm building a photo gallery of the various protests and signs I see and will one day publish a book on how our right to free speech has allowed so many to expose their ignorance. So I'm taking advantage of it. But I have to wonder how the average family guy driving his kid to school feels.
"Free Hawaii," "Hands of Syria and Iran," and "American Military = American Terrorism" are just a few of the nice slogans slapped on bumpers in the patriotic Mission District of SF. And these are the tame ones. "Fu@# Bush" is probably the most eloquent I see from time to time. Thank god I don't have a child sitting next to me asking "what does that mean, daddy?"
Yet some wonder why San Francisco is made fun of across the nation as being out of touch. They proudly claim idiots like Gerardo "we don't need a military" Sandoval and Cindy "I love Hugo" Sheehan as well as the rest of these schizophrenics-with-Sharpies. But they hate it when you question their patriotism.
You see, there comes a point when you have to say enough. Protesting the war and claiming Bush lied is fine. I can read the signs along Mission or in Berkeley every day and it will only make me laugh at your sheep-like misguided following. But when people take it to the roof of their homes, don't cry when we point and laugh at the spectacle you've become. And don't sit back wondering why there are cities voting to refrain from spending dollars in SF. Protesting the military and government that protests your freedom to say these things will eventually bite you in the ass...or your wallet...or as is the case above, the brain you use to function.
Here are a few more protest shots, this one of a woman's van outside the Federal Building in downtown Oakland. She's fasting as a protest of the War on Terror. She posted one of the doctored Reuters images on her truck as a sign of American terrorism. Too bad the lack of food has screwed up her ability to notice the fallacy.
