[LEMONS] 4.11.2003
I'm from San Francisco
The protests are something, I think, San Franciscans will be talking about for years to come. They became another of the city's many defining moments. Like the two great earthquakes, or the summer of love, the protests became San Francisco. Internationally, at least, people we encountered immediately identified San Francisco with people taking to the streets. San Francisco was the city that told the world not everyone in the U.S.A. stood for war.I don't know that I would have protested. I'm not sure I would have felt comfortable doing so professionally. But I would have been there. I would have taken pictures and written about it. And aside from just wanting to see it, for its own sake, I really feel like I missed a civic moment. Last night I read this dramatic blow-by-blow account of the protests in the Bay Guardian. I was stunned. For the last week, it's nearly all I've talked about with old aquaintances. And like the earthquake, it's one of those "where were you, what did you do," moments.
Several of my friends were in the thick of it. Jared was the first person to tell me about them, and I had several discussions with protestors at her birthday party. Last night I found out Bernardo was arrested.
I realize protests went on all over the country. Down in LA, my friend Annie was physically beaten by police, punched and clubbed. But I feel like this was the epicenter. And it was another reason I love this different, difficult city. Another reason I was glad to tell people I met on the road, "I'm from San Francisco."
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