Protesters

There is something about Washington, D.C. that attracts protesters. It's probably the high concentration of influential people, but I think that there may be something in the genetics of these folks that attracts them to the city - like birds flying south for the winter. Whatever the reason, it's certainly not rational thought.

Case in point - a few days ago I was walking past the White House (i.e. protest Mecca) and noticed a group of scraggly looking people repeating whatever this man shouted into a bullhorn.* As I stood there and listened (albeit from across the street so as not to be offended by the smell), I realized that the protest was about the cyclone that recently devastated the tiny country of Burma. Until that moment I had failed to realize that the cyclone was entirely the fault of President Bush and his fascist regime.

All irony aside, the protesters were claiming that the United States was not doing anything to help the Burmese people and that we needed to immediately send humanitarian aid to that country. Newspapers are apparently kryptonite to protesters. This can be the only explanation for this particular protest because, if the protesters had actually taken the time to read a newspaper in the weeks following the cyclone, they would have understood that the United States had been trying to send aid, but had been repeatedly blocked by the military dictatorship that controls Burma. Therefore, the proper site for the protest would have been at the Burmese Embassy (not sure if there is one, will have to Google) in order to encourage them to allow the international aid workers to enter their country and help the people who had been displaced by the storm.

Moral of the story - if you are thinking about protesting, take a little time to study up on the subject so that you at least know what you are talking about. However, I'm also fine with leaving things the way they are - it at least makes my commute more entertaining.




*Aside - the man shouting into the bullhorn was the most scraggly looking of the bunch. This could be akin to military rank - the more scraggly, the higher in the power chain.