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September 3, 2004
After the Convention
This morning felt somewhat anti-climactic after a week of growling at delegates in white sneakers, walking blocks out of my way to get to work (note to self: next place of employment should ideally not be located at the nexus of several hotels where the President and cabinet members always stay when they come to NYC), and screaming at the television. There was also a brief moment of panic when I attempted to cross 9th Avenue by myself this morning, without the comforting presence of five cops telling me what to do.
The biggest surprise of last night's events was how totally content-free it all was. Bush delivered one of the blandest, most meaningless speeches of his career that probably didn't make any logical sense to even his supporters. The protesters on 8th Avenue shouted and held up signs, but the rally speaker on the mic when I was there spoke mainly about the struggles the protest organizations have gone through in trying to get city permits. No mention of the more than 1,825 people who have been arrested since Sunday, many of whom were held illegally without a lawyer or phone access, and some of whom were not even protesting. And little mention of George Bush.
Hopefully we'll soon get some significant writing and outcry about the treatment of arrested protesters--so far, the most comprehensive piece appears to be the Washington Post one linked to earlier. A sputtering, outraged story should come out next week in the Village Voice. Until then, note that about 2/3 of the arrested protesters were from out of state. We at the Robot are impressed at the commitment of these demonstrators to go out of their way, get arrested, and suffer through terrible conditions and illegally extended detention. Hope you can make it back to New York some time when it isn't a police state.
