Reply #9: I knew Scott back in 2002 when it all began.

[7wo7rees]

As war protesters and budding anarchists in Dallas, my SO and I knew we were under fascist rule when Cheney got his war in Afghan, and Ashcroft got his PATRIOT ACT. We knew being against them in a visible vocal way was the same as Scott throwing banners. We must be silenced!

He asked us to come train with him, but we demurred, thinking "We're already on the no-fly list, why risk going to Gitmo?" We weren't on the no-fly list and they weren't going to send us to Gitmo, but we didn't know that then. It looked like the whole goddamn country was late 1930's Germany, and the Fuhrer had been placed, and jackbooted thugs were about to start marching down the streets. They didn't, but they acted like that could happen. We had heard about 9-11 being an Inside Job and the secret FEMA camps. We didn't know what the FUCK was going on in our country. We just knew a bunch of shitheels stole the keys and were joyriding in our beloved democracy.

Which, if you're an American, is grounds for getting uppity. Protests are weak. They give the group participating a self-satisfying stroke, but no one in the towers looks down, and thinks twice if they're doing anything immoral or illegal or offensive. Nonviolent direct action is so much more to the point, but has a limited shelf life as well. A majority of our American brethren have been zombified. To break through the cacophony of MSM and Idol, you gotta MAKE the news for the masses to catch a glimpse of the truth behind the staged news. I enjoy the Freeway Blogger and The Yes Men and the BLF for these reasons.

But even then you got to kick out infiltrators. The marches are bad enough when cops burn cop cars, and the Black Bloc causes mayhem and subverts the nonviolent theme of the whole deal. But if you're in your living room with like-minded anarchists, and some burly toad says, "Let's light the IRS on fire," how would you deal with that? You get paranoid. Probably right down to the catalogs you throw away. Life sucks when there's a camera and a manned SUV right outside.

He did nothing wrong. The FBI did. And we still don't have our country back.
BTW, kudos to the NYT for its belated front-page coverage of this American spirit. Franklin and Jefferson would have loved Scott.
His work at the Exxon shareholders meeting was meaningful and necessary.
His work in New Orleans in 2005 alone is reason to consider him an American HERO.



Photo courtesy of the BLM