Is this worth it?

I wished “I was a punk rock girl with flowers in my hair.” much like that song that has sort of become the anthem for me and a lot of my wannabe radical friends. It would rock to have been part of a radical movement that ultimately changed the way we see our world today and an era that basically defined where we live. Really, would Berkeley be what it is today without the ’60s?

Today, there is also a lot to fight for and against and I saw an opportunity to be a part of what I thought I missed out on being born almost 30 years too late. I went to an anti-Bush march with views that looked like my own to help support what I thought would lead to a change. And a way to be politically active in the same way as the radical hippies I so admired. Unfortunately, the reality I found was very different.

Do you remember the little green anti-Bush pamphlets silently crying out inflammatory words that encouraged walkouts? Well I did and decided maybe these pieces of paper had something going for them, something I wanted to support. I walked out excited and proud of my act of civil disobedience. I finally was going to be part of a radical movement taking action instead of just being angry. So I joined the scarce crowd on the BART to San Francisco to express my point of view. I expected a message, action and places to sign up and help. What I found here was more inflammatory words, little planned action and even less done. So I took some pictures and came home and thought about who these instigators were, what their plan was and whether they had any other motives. This couldn’t be what the protesters in Washington DC over 30 years ago felt. How did something like this ever work? I still couldn’t believe that this was what it was like to be a “punk rock girl with flowers in her hair.”

I found a lot of surprising facts. The World Can’t Wait Organization (WCW) sponsored the event as well as promoted it. They are the ones responsible for those beautiful flaming world posters that plastered Berkeley. It turns out that these marches have been happening annually since 2000 when Bush was elected into office. The marches are predicted to finally pay off in 2008 around election time. These marches were happening across the country that day, with a final count of 234 places nation wide. Many places didn’t have as robust a turn out as San Francisco did, even with drizzling rain and a threatening sky. I have to say it was quite heartening to see all the different high schools represented (ours was not) and the diverse number of people that showed up to unite in one course. It was scarily cult-like at one point when the chant became “join us, join us, the world can’t wait.” What were we yelling for them to join and what can’t the world wait for? The march as well as visiting worldcantwait.com it turned out to have the same vague cause as the chant. It also seemed like a culmination of every protest that has happened so far this year. At one point I wasn’t sure if I was still in the same march because all of a sudden there were immigration posters everywhere and a completely different chant ringing through the air. I guess since there was such a variety of different protesters, Bush must be so offensive that he has basically upset everyone.

Now at first I thought that this was the only action the WCW actually took to meet their goals, but they have done other things as well. The most noteworthy is the bill they created to impeach Bush. They actually got it reviewed by the House of Representatives in January 2003. Though it didn’t make it much farther than that (surprise, surprise), it was a big step forward. This was a great thing and one of the only other actions that has actually come out of this “movement.”

Although there are plenty good intentions behind this idea of “kicking out the Bush regime”, it has stayed just that, an idea. Instead of actually doing anything, all the WCW does is rile people up with the same shock and awe tactics as the very people they are supposed to be fighting. They use key words that seem reminiscent of “terrorism” or even “communism” and lack education about key issues and real solutions.

They are very good at what they have done: rile people’s anger, but after they do that they don’t harness it toward actual action. From yelling “join us, join us” to having backers like the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP), this whole affair is way too cult-like for my taste. It also is doing everything that I dislike about Bush’s tactics and that I just can’t stomach. They repeatedly called Bush and his cabinet “terrorists” a word I think has been thrown around way too much and now on both sides. You can’t beat an enemy using the same tactics you are fighting. We are not going to get any thing done by just calling names. Though conspiracy theories and radical marches are fun and all, maybe how we are going about this defeats the original purpose.

We can use our voices to actually make a change in much more constructive ways. Recently we saw a great example of this with the Democrats taking over Congress to put back in checks and balances. Maybe the answer is being less radical and more pragmatic. Hopefully this will be the way to not have the ends be the only justification of the means.

After all, protesting for the sake of protesting is not all it’s cracked up to be. I always believed that protesting was a way to make a change and an effective way to educate. I found none of these things in this “movement.” I came away with a feeling of disappointment. I am no longer so envious of the stoned-out hippies that I thought I wanted to be like. There is really no such thing as a “neo-hippie” and I think that’s maybe for the best. The ’60s can finally be put to sleep, at least in my mind. No more free love; AIDs is too rampant. No more Timothy Leary experimentation with mind expanding drugs; heroin addicts and cracked out bums are too rampant. And maybe productive protesting has been dead as well. It is no longer a healthy exercise in getting an idea heard and something done, but a flexing of a worn-out muscle to show that we have it to flex.