Blogs from Manhattan, New York, New York, United States, North America - page 214

Tuesday, August 31st, was a day of civil disobedience entitled "A31" by activists. A31 proved to be the most active day for the NYPD as they struggled to maintain control over the city and the activists struggled to disrupt business as usual. ' And while the story of civil disobedience in the streets was appealing, I was also interested in documenting the story of less risk-averse but equally motivated activists. To wit, I decided to check out "The Stroller Brigade," a march of liberal parents with babies past Madison Square Garden. The march was supposed to kick off at at Madison Square Park, but when I arrived there was nary a stroller in sight. Wandering around the park I came across a television cameraman with a similarly befuddled expression. When I asked him where teh Stroller ... read more

I don't like to fall more than a day behind in my blogging, but sometimes it's inevitable. I came up here to New York with my friend Tom, and by Tuesday evening the two of us barely even had the energy left to say, "Dude, I'm beat!" Every day feels like a marathon, and by Tuesday night I was dragging after four days on the streets. I'm sure the cops and the protesters are just as beat, but for me there added burdens of carrying around a bag of cameras, keeping my eyes peeled, navigating the unknown streets of New York, interviewing people and, oh yeah, taking pictures. But being on the streets of New York is in itself physically demanding. For most of the week the temperature has been hovering around 90 degrees. If I ... read more

Monday was a day for another march, this time unpermitted. I joined the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign for a permitted rally at Dag Hammarskjöld Plaza across from the United Nations. The rally started off with promise and vigor, with each speaker taking no more than a minute at the microphone. But it was at some point after Nicole from the Deaf and Blind Committee for Human Rights "spoke" through an interpreter (don't ask me how Nicole was able to see her hands in order to speak in sign language) that I realized that brevity in speakers could easily be overcome by quantity of speakers. After the tenth speaker took to the stage, the press started to drift out of their pit in front of the podium, and headed to the back of the plaza, ... read more

"Dude, you're on TV!" Thus said my fellow protestor Tom as we watched CNN Headline News at close to midnight. For a few fleeting seconds my face and wide-brimmed Tillie hat stoud head and shoulders above a crowd of thousands of people participating in the Pro-Choice March across the Brooklyn Bridge. The footage must have been taken early in the day, because by the end of the day I was considerably less enthusiatic after spending 12 hours on my feet in 90 degree heat with a camera bag over my shoulder, at which point my clothes were entirely soaked through with sweat and I was craving salt on anything, "I'll have an order of fries, please. They come with salt, right?" I doubt that I will ever be able to forget the sublime joy of marching ... read more

I left Newport News this morning on the Amtrak train to New York City, and along the way I read several chapters in "Lies My Teacher Told Me," by my Vermont homeboy James Loewen, which follows up quite nicely on a conversation I was having with my boss Mary. Yesterday she half rhetorically asked, "Why don't more Americans know about the terrible atrocities our goverment has done?" I replied, ''Education. Or a lack thereof." My homeboy James Loewen offered up a quote by Helen Keller that extrapolated upon the American tradition of willful ignorance. Helen Keller pointed out, "People do not like to think. If one thinks, one must reach conclusions. Conclusions are not always pleasant." It is not pleasant to consider that, for instance, the United States has not promoted democracy in the Middle East. In ... read more