September 11th

I was on the marching field when the first plane hit. It was a beautiful morning and when Reicher called down his typical "It's a great day to be alive." from the crow's nest, we had no idea what was happening. My high school was on block system and so we wouldn't know until nearly 9:30 CST. 

I had just requisitioned a bra, something I had forgotten when packing my swim bag at 4:00 that morning. At the time, being bra-less seemed like the largest crisis a high school senior girl could face. When I walked into the bathroom everything was normal. When I emerged, my friends were standing in a semi-circle, mouths agape, and it was clear something was terribly wrong. 

Without speaking we all walked quickly to our second block classes. I was sure Mrs. Edwards, the veteran AP English teacher, would have the television on. Much to my disappointment she was absent that day. The entire class period was filled with whispered speculations and confusion. One girl was nearly in tears, murmuring something about how the Rock Island Arsenal was on the bombing list. The substitute refused to let us turn on the television and the school administration was suspiciously silent. When second block ended, I found my friends and skipped the rest of the day. 

We got to my house as the second tower fell. The rest of the afternoon we stood in my living room glued to the television. A tag line at the bottom of the screen informed us that all extracurricular activities were cancelled. When my dad got home, everyone split up and went to their separate homes. 

I remember the lines at the gas stations, the impressive amount of flags everywhere, the exceeding amount of unity permeating the nation, and the anxiety swelling in my chest. I understood that America was not without sin. That we had been attacked and we were going to war (even if, as my friend Joe pointed out, the culprits had no one nation to call home). I was afraid that the attacks would justify racism against people of middle-eastern heritage, or worse, internment camps. I was scared because I didn't trust Bush as far as I could throw him, but I was hopeful that the unity we were experiencing as a nation would see us through. 

I am still hopeful that we will be able to recall the events of that day and rediscover the unity we had in the wake of that disaster.  I am hopeful the new president will refuse to use the memory of 9/11 to elicit fear and that going forward we will use the events of that tragedy to unite us rather than divide us. 

Death of Paper Update

This summer I wrote a column about the upcoming electronic paper revolution. And, as is often the case, a technology company was already getting ready to release this new product:



(Via Slog.)

Excellent RNC Pictures

A friend who was also covering the protests in St. Paul last week sent me a link to a great photo-blog chronicling the event. Check it out.

9/11

I was in middle school on the day of September Eleventh. Junior high. 8th grade if I remember right. It seems like a lifetime ago, and it really is. I was in art class with Mr. Kilbourn. He wore eyeglasses, had a beard and a bald head, and formidable eyebrows- he should have had an accent. The class was working on clay instruments or contuor sketches or something. Suddenly the high school counselor came into the room and clicks on the TV. I heard her mention a plane crash- or three of them. The Pentagron had already been hit; the news suspected their were more planes. At first I had a hard time understanding what was really happening. I couldn't picture a plane crashing into the Pentagon. It was unimaginable. The TV came on with the image of an airplane blasting into a building. I had never seen anything like it-- I remember wondering why it didn't come smashing out the other side. I thought about the Kamikazes in World War II; we had just learned about them in 7th grade. Maniacal crazies who are ready to die to for their country, and willing too-- the darkest kinds of loyalty and dedication. I tried to think of suspects, and I hated the figured blindly. They attacked America. Until that point, I pretty much thought no one really had any problems with America. It seemed like we were always the good guys- like heroes, I thought we couldn't be harmed. Yet there was a group out there that hated us so much, they went to great lengths just to kill civilians. What would the United States do in response? I'll admit I wanted war, but not a 7-years War, soon 8, then who knows? I guess it's good we haven't been attacked, but that doesn't exactly mean we're not losing. We're losing somewhere, but I suppose we're not lost. That was a lifetime ago, and the times- they are a'changin. That's right- CHANGE is coming; no Bush, no matter what. And there's only two months to go. Now is the age of change, and hope too. And perhaps this age can make the war-age a think of the past.

Berkeley Tree Protesters

I have to admit-I sort of admire the four Berkeley tree protesters. 21 months with the Memorial Oak Grove is definitely admirable. The construction of a $124-million athletic center is even more reason to protest, especially at the expense of 42 different oaks, redwoods, etc.

As a personal vignette, I remember growing up near a fairly large wooded area. The neighborhood kids and I would ride our bikes through the woods to the creek that ran through them where on the weekends, we would swim, fish, skip rocks, and to the dismay of many of our parents, the woods was also the place we ran away to so that we could be alone with our childhood crushes.

But as we grew older, the trees did too. They became insignificant. Not only did they become overrun by cheeseburger wrappers and old styrofoam 7-Eleven cups, but gradually, sections of them were destroyed to make room for new economic development-a new Wal-Mart, more housing developments, etc. Today, the trees that remain have been left standing alone, awaiting the day when they too will be knocked down to make way for some big business to join in on the capitalist rat race.

I miss the days when those trees offered solitude. Nowadays, it's nearly impossible to go the the woods and skip a few rocks into the creek without being distracted by the deafening drone of the traffic on the highway. Or to retreat to the woods late at night to gaze up at the stars without the fluorescent, blinding glow of the Wal-Mart parking lot.

Where do we draw the line when it comes to economic development? How many acres of the natural world and wildlife refuge must we destroy before there are a sufficient number of corporate supercenters (::cough:: Wal-Mart)? Sometimes, I doubt that there will ever be a final act in this endless cycle of supply and demand.

Let's just hope that these arrested tree-sitters don't face felony charges for protecting the beings that may someday become extinct.

The Heat of the Moment

I love experimenting with new media. Twitter is no exception. However, as we journalists forge our own paths through the uncharted jungle that is the information age, we are likely to run into all sorts of unexpected pitfalls. Twitter's format makes it particularly subject to issues of misunderstanding due to the short length of the posts and lack of context.

I thought Twitter would be a good way for me to update my readers as to what was happening when I was reporting from the edges of a protest in St. Paul, Minnesota this weekend. It seems I was wrong. Unfortunately, some of my updates have given at least one reader an extremely distorted view of what I was up to at the time.

Allow me to clear up the confusion. I was not in St. Paul to protest. I was there to cover the protests and the police's reaction to them. To put it as bluntly as possible, I do not hold most of those who were protesting there in even remotely high esteem. The protests for the most part were childish and pointless. However, that does not justify the way the police responded.

From what I saw, the protesters could have easily been contained and waited out. Instead, the police repeatedly acted to instigate conflict. The protesters are certainly to blame for not conducting themselves as serious participants in political discourse ought to, but they did nothing to deserve the severity of the response they got.

Throughout the entire evening I did my best to remain out on the edge of the protests such that I would not appear to endorse them or even be overly associated with them. Rather than chanting any silly slogans, I simply stood back with my fellow reporters and quietly took notes about what was happening. Of course I also updated frequently on Twitter.

As things escalated, I increasingly expressed my exasperation with the police's behavior towards the protesters. Law enforcement officers ought to be more mature than the half-cocked young loudmouths they were keeping away from the convention. In this case they were not. Of course, if I were a straight news reporter, I would only comment on all of these things in objective terms. But I am a columnist and an editorial writer. It is my job to say what I think. Thus, I did my job.

Finally, as the police began firing flash bombs and tear gas into the crowd, I lashed out in my last two Twitter updates. Even though I was a nicely dressed and perfectly well-behaved journalist attempting to stay out of the way of the protest while still being close enough to see what was going on, I was still very much in the line of fire. Of course the crowd rushed out in all directions when the police moved in. As this happened, the police continued to fire flash bombs and tear gas.

After a tear gas canister nearly struck me, I referred to the police as "fascists" in a Twitter update. That was a mistake. I would have used the much more accurate term "authoritarian" if I'd had the time and presence of mind to do so. But, as I said, things were getting a bit out of hand at the time. So I used a word I now regret--not because I think the police were acting appropriately, but because the word is simply not accurate.

It was great that my friends could follow what I was seeing and thinking with Twitter, but it was clearly a mistake to suggest that readers who don't know me personally join in as well. There simply wasn't enough context for them to understand what I was actually saying and thinking. That is why I have, for now, protected my Twitter updates. I'm reevaluating the service's use as a reporting tool.

Again, I am proud of the professional manner in which I conducted myself on Thursday. I was doing my job and I believe I was doing it well. And as I said earlier, I am not particularly sympathetic to the protesters, their ideas, or their methods. However, I believe strongly that it is in large part the First Amendment that makes America the great nation that it is. When I observe police officers acting in a way I deem to be against the spirit of the constitution, I get upset. Of course police officers must protect people and property from those who would endanger them, but they should always do so in an appropriate and restrained way.

I went to St. Paul in order to see for myself whether what I'd been reading online about events there was accurate. Having been there Thursday night, I believe it is. My beliefs in the importance of new media and in the failure of much of mainstream journalism have been strengthened. My disdain for immature protesters as well as my skepticism of and alarm at the militarization of policing in America were also bolstered.

I'll be writing more about my experiences in St. Paul on this blog and in the paper next week. But for now I just wanted to set the record straight. I believe I have done so, but if anyone has question please feel free to ask and I will answer them as best I can.

If He Stands by This, Joe Biden is My New Hero

From ABC, via Daily Kos, via a friend:

Looking to the future but with one eye on the past, Biden also promised that an Obama-Biden government would go through Bush administration data with "a fine-toothed comb" and pursue criminal charges if necessary.

"If there has been a basis upon which you can pursue someone for a criminal violation," he said, "they will be pursued, not out of vengeance, not out of retribution - out of the need to preserve the notion that no one, no one, no attorney general, no president, no one is above the law."

Plan to restore the rule of law in America:
Step 1 - Elect Obama/Biden.
Step 2 - Get Dodd as attorney general.
Step 3 - Release the document-combing hounds that are idealistic young DOJ attorneys and interns.
Step 4 - Assemble the case.
Step 5 - Show it to a grand jury.
Step 6 - Proceed on rational course following results of Step 5.

Obama and Biden should continue to say what Biden apparently just said, but not get any more specific. It needs to be for the legal system to resolve. They have to stress that it won't be political and they won't be involved. And they shouldn't be.

Seriously, regardless of the results of this process, it will do much to restore some sense of balance to the uncomfortably skewed and seemingly fragile edifice that is the separation of powers in our federal government. The law must apply to everyone at all times--equally. If it doesn't, then we don't have a president. We'd have a king.

Royalist? Hmm. Is that at all catchy as a pejorative in the 21st Century?

My Twitter Page

If you're interested in updates I may file from my phone under circumstances when I can't use my laptop or when I simply have such a short idea that I don't want to waste a whole blog post on, I'll be posting such thoughts on my Twitter page. Click here to check it out--you need not subscribe just to view my updates.

I've Arrived

The Matts and I are here in Minneapolis. I'm rushing to get some other stuff done, but will try to be in St. Paul by 4 p.m. because that's when the first protest is supposed to start. A march on the capitol building. Matt N. has plenty of photography equipment and I have a laptop and a reporter's notepad, so we plan to stick close together. Thus, hopefully, we will appear more like press than we otherwise would. Also, I'm wearing a nice sweater over a button-up shirt. Very non-threatening. Possibly unless you're homophobic.

Feeling teased by all the e-mail I keep getting that AREN'T the e-mail I desperately need ASAP. Man, I first called about this on Tuesday. But it's good experience. The ability to work under this sort of pressure is essential given the current breakneck pace of change in the world. Go to sleep for a second an you might miss something. Good thing I haven't slept since Tuesday night. Naked Juice just did a lot to refresh me, but I'll need to start in on the caffeinated beverages before long. No question about that.

How could people live before WiFi in coffee shops? It just wasn't a civilized world.

Twin Cities Bound

I'll be heading up to Minneapolis with my friend Matt at 6:30 a.m. to meet our other friend Matt at his place. Thus, we should arrive around 11:30 a.m. Then we'll all head over to St. Paul and get ourselves waist deep in the RNC protests--reporting on them that is, not participating.

Wish us luck. And may the spirit of Hunter S. Thompson be with us.

I'll be updating as much as I can.

Gather Your Pitchforks

I saw an article last week in the Press-Citizen that caught my attention. I can't find the exact source where I first found the article, but I did find the same article on a Boston news page: http://www.thebostonchannel.com/news/17321190/detail.html.

Anyway, apparently over 500 colleges around the nation and an expected 1,000 to follow in the near future have adopted or plan to adopt a training program sponsored by the Center for Personal Protection and Safety. In response to the Virginia Tech shooting and various other college shootings across the country, colleges are teaching students "not to take campus threats lying down but to fight back with any 'improvised weapon.'" Trainers encourage students to take advantage of strength in numbers to fight back against their assailant.

Overall, I think this is a really good idea. When I think back to tragic events such as these-though I am only able to see them through the lens of a person who wasn't directly affected-I imagine how differently things might have been if in these lecture halls where shooters opened fire on students, four or five students had decided gather every sharp, obtrusive object they could find and fight back. But this is the point where I start to doubt the effectiveness of this training.

So, I put myself inside that lecture hall. I'm sitting there, reading a text message from my love interest, furiously jotting down notes, when a student with a gun enters the room and starts shooting: he shoots the students who run, the students who cower in the corner, and he shoots the professor. At this point, it really doesn't matter how much I value the other student lives in the room with me or even how much I could get used to being a superhero and saving all of my classmates from destruction. All those thoughts I've ever had during a daydream (how if I ever came across a shooter, I would use my textbook as a frisbee, which would then hit the shooter in the head and knock him out cold on the floor) and any training I've had to deal with this type of situation will be erased. All of that training and preparation will go right out that door with me as I run to save my own life.

I hate to think that I would watch others die in the process of selfishly saving my own life. But perhaps it's instinctive. And I think most students could say the same. As screams bounce off the walls around them and adrenaline rushes through their veins, they are in no position to critically think, "Okay, what can I do here? How can I save this whole room of people? Well, I could..." Adrenaline says, "RUN, you are in serious danger!"

I applaud the colleges that have made an attempt to better prepare their students for potential disaster. If a few students somewhere could find a way to calm their nerves, slow their racing hearts, and ally together, countless lives could be saved.

Using DNA Like Really Tiny Legos

Check out this fascinating presentation, outlining one line of progress in the field of molecular manufacturing:

Paul Rothemund folds DNA into shapes and patterns. Which is a simple enough thing to say, but the process he has developed has vast implications for computing and manufacturing -- allowing us to create things we can now only dream of.

Regarding Iraq's New-Found Stability

It seems to be alarmingly fragile:

The Iraqi government is taking over responsibility for the local militias that helped break the back of the country's Sunni insurgency. But these fighters -- known as "Awakening Councils" and "Sons of Iraq" -- are largely hostile to the Shi'ite-dominated administration in Baghdad. So what happens next? No one is really quite sure.

Over the past eighteen months, U.S. forces in Iraq have put on the payroll more than 100,000 militiamen -- many of whom are former insurgents themselves. That's the main reason why American troops were able on Monday to hand off control of Anbar Province to the Iraqis.

Watching the Watchers

Glenn Greenwald continues to report on police actions against journalists (particularly video journalists):

Not only Goodman, but the entire Democracy Now team are professional journalists in the best sense of that term. Those who are simply assuming that they probably got what they deserved -- and who are, more generally, defending the Police here simply because some actual criminals engaged in destructive behavior -- are no different than those who justify anything and everything the Government does because there are some Terrorists out there and they're really violent.

I highly recommend watching this interview with Goodman, which was taped immediately after her release from police custody.

For a more extensive examination of the police's tactics, check out the reporting Matt Snyders has been doing:

Just over three months ago, we wrote of the FBI's effort to recruit moles to infiltrate and report back on peace activists throughout the Twin Cities ("Moles Wanted," 5/21/08). Upon the story's appearance in print, bemusement gave way to outraged speculation on message boards and in conversation. The idea of the federal government keeping tabs on "vegan potlucks" seemed at the time almost too absurd to be true.

But any doubts were eliminated Friday when the Ramsey County Sheriff's Department and St. Paul police—working under the direction of federal agencies, including the FBI—began raiding homes of protesters throughout the metro. Before the weekend was through, authorities would arrest six people and detain dozens more in a preemptive strike against would-be RNC rabble-rousers.

Given Snyders' story from May, it's obvious just how extensively the authorities prepared for this event. It's not as though they're just running around doing all of this on the fly.

So why all the secrecy? Wouldn't it be better for the police to operate in a much more transparent fashion?

Rather than tossing people with video cameras in jail, the police should be taping everything themselves. It's not as though such equipment is overly expensive, bulky, or difficult to use these days. In fact, it would probably be relatively easy to integrate some sort of cameras into the police's riot gear itself--on their helmets, rifles, or anywhere else.

There is no doubt that some of the protesters at the RNC are engaging in dangerous and violent activity. And there is no question that the police should arrest such people in order to protect everyone else. But all police activity should be recorded and those recordings should all be uploaded to the Internet. Then knowing which arrests and other uses of force are justified and which are not would be quite simple.

Given what is possible with today's technology there is simply no justification for police operations such as this one to be so opaque. Turning a common knee-jerk pro-law enforcement slogan around, if the police aren't doing anything wrong, then what do they have to hide?

Daily Twin Cities Craziness Round Up

I have decided to journey up to the Twin Cities Wednesday evening and see for myself what happens as the convention concludes the next day.

Meanwhile...

Glenn Greenwald continues his biting criticism of the police's authoritarian tactics thus far:

Perhaps most extraordinarily, Amy Goodman of Democracy Now -- the radio and TV broadcaster who has been a working journalist for close to 20 years -- was arrested on the street and charged with "conspiracy to riot." Audio of her arrest, which truly shocked and angered the crowd of observers, is here. I just attended a Press Conference with St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman and Police Chief John M. Harrington and -- after they boasted of how "restrained" their police actions were -- asked about the journalists and lawyers who had been detained and/or arrested both today and over the weekend. They said they wouldn't give any information about journalists who had been arrested today, though they said they believed that "one journalist" had been, and that she "was seemingly a participant in the riots, not simply a non-participant." I'll have video of the Press Conference posted shortly.

Brendan Kiley had an experience of the type I'll be attempting to avoid on Thursday:

A voice behind me said: “Hey! Keep moving!” It was another phalanx of police. Stupidly, I flashed my media credentials and said “You go on without me. I’m just reporting on this.” I felt a cool shower over my head and heard the cop throw the canister on the sidewalk. She dumped the whole damn thing on me.

(She was a lady. I’ve always wanted to be pepper-sprayed by a lady.)

In a couple of seconds, I was a blind, wheezing, snotting, doubled-over wreck of a man, trying to push my bike toward safety while being jabbed in the back with a baton and told to hurry up. I bumped into several small trees along the way.

And Ben Westhoff described just how surreal the situation in his city has become:

While folks inside the air-conditioned, Wi-Fi accessible Xcel Center were taking off their Republican hats and putting on their American ones, outside giant trucks were blocking off bridges, riot guards were manning corners and stepping in horse poop, and the dirty, sweaty masses were screaming about tyranny. (Yes, it was almost exactly like Children of Men.)

Sounds, eh, fun? Trust me, I'll be doing my best to avoid physical pain. I always do. Any suggestions for accessories other than a helmet and clothes nice enough to make it clear I'm not a dirty hippy anarchist?