Protests Dowtown LA

The protests in downtown Los Angeles seem so anemic. Perhaps because Los Angeles is such a sprawling metropolis that people don't converge in one place, so protests happen at the airport and several other locations, dissipating the impact. And the protests seem rather anarchic with each protestor representing their own personal objections and objectives.

But what really bothers me about these protestors is where have they been? why now? I had to suffer in silence under the years and years of policies that brought our country to this point. It has been a long, long time coming. Why is it only now that there are protests?

I don't know the answers. I can only guess, and my guesses are naturally colored by the lense of my world view. But the truth is that Obama gives people hope that their protests will matter. Living under the Bush/Cheney oligarchic style made people afraid. And that was done deliberately and cynically. Bush/Cheney used the terror warning system to arouse fear in the general population and did not tie the warnings to any actual conditions. Orange did not mean there was knowledge of terrorist activity. Orange meant that Republicans desired to change the conversation and turn it away from real dialogue and back to pedagogy and fear. Nice people.

We should have protested the possibility of invading Iraq. We should have been Legion, in huge multitudes protesting every step of that drum beat to war. We should have been legions outside the United Nations objecting to Colin Powell telling the false stories to defend war.

We should have protested the massive payouts of corporate CEOs at every board meeting. We should have organized as shareholders and pointed out the bad decisions these 'leaders' were being incentivized to make.

We should have protested the corruption on Wall Street long ago. We should have protested the insider trading, stock market manipulation, computerized trading, the accessibility to trade limited to the few. It is beyond frustrating.

For years, I have struggled alone without a voice, dumbfounded by the passivity of the very people being being harmed.

And now finally, there are protests. Where have you been? Where in god's name have you been?