Anonymous is What I'm Talking Bout

Omigod! I am having such fun reading about the Anonymous protests around the world yesterday. I especially loved the reports about the London protests.

I especially love this image

This is both what I love and hate about Anarchists. They know how to have such a good time when they protest, and they bring such freshness to the entire discourse. And ... sadly, it is hard to sustain this kind of energy over the long term. I sincerely hope I am wrong.

It is just really hard to keep taking it to the streets. At some point, you have to have another strategy. Right now they are good looking, funny, good natured and more importantly ... not taken seriously. I hope to never see a Guy Fawkes mask drenched in blood ... or any of these good natured, smart and funny people in jail.

May their joyous spirits and deep intellect be heard, appreciated and welcomed. And may the gods of old protect their bodies, minds and hearts. From my mouth to the goddess' ears .... ashe!

------

On another note, I had another chance to be an urban avenger last night. It has been years since I was able to chase down a man abusing a woman. But last night, I did my current version of heroism.

I heard a woman screaming on my block, I rushed to the door to see her being beaten on a porch almost directly across the street. I stepped onto my porch and bellowed, "I AM CALLING THE POLICE, I AM CALLING THE POLICE, I AM CALLING THE POLICE" at the top of my lungs.

If you know anything about me, you KNOW how loud that had to have been. I then promptly ... called the police. Saying it three times meant it would get through to him that he not only was in trouble, but he had a witness unafraid to let him know who and where I was. The violence deescalated almost immediately. And the cops showed up in less than 2 minutes.

Later a fire engine came and the techs went inside the house with emergency medical supplies. Later the police walked out with the man in cuffs. All in all, a successful intervention.

I am feeling pretty good about myself at the moment.

Maybe I can't go and bust some heads, but I can yell and I can call for help. Yay ME!!

Posted in

Submitted by katrina on Mon, 02/11/2008 - 5:03pm.

Jonathan Korman (not verified) | Mon, 02/11/2008 - 7:17pm

Apropos of Anonymous, do you know about Howard Rheingold's book Smart Mobs ? As the title suggests, it's about this very thing.

»

Angela Raincatcher (not verified) | Tue, 02/12/2008 - 11:01am

It's good to know that there are people willing to stand up and cry out that they do indeed witness what is happening. So many people would have hidden in their house waiting for someone else to call and hoping that no one witnessed the fact that they themselves saw what was happening.

You continue to inspire me to stand up.

»

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Recent comments

  • Claire-Marie Le Normond (not verified)

    Wish I could be there. Very well spoken.

    15 weeks 2 days ago
  • David Salisbury (not verified)

    Katrina,
    I wish you all the blessings and power you need on your journey. Thank you for these words. It is good to remember that returning to work (and thus returning to grace) bring a chance for us all to rest and have joy.
    Wishing you joy in the Work.

    David

    17 weeks 4 days ago
  • Sigre (not verified)

    Dear Katrina- Thorn reposted your blog and happy am I. Your passion, always so immense, comes blowing out in these words. So akin to my own heart and soul that it makes me have a bittersweet smile.

    The Storm is only now coming to the edges of our universe and yet it will sweep and consume all that is. In the end, our beautiful universe will be so much...more? Different? Complete? Who knows?

    All I do know is my soul came here to witness and be part in this period. I cannot shrink from the work. I am here with you, fae sister!

    17 weeks 5 days ago
  • Macha NightMare (not verified)

    Thought-provoking piece, Katrina. Thanks.

    I don't know what to call myself either. In Pagandom, I've taken to referring to myself as a Witch at Large. In the interfaith world where I'm active, I call myself a Pagan. Sometimes I call myself an uppity woman or a Second Wave Feminist. I've never really thought to publicly identify myself by my sexuality, het woman, which is very "white bread" and old-fashioned. Not only het, but serially monogamous for the most part. It seems almost a liability these days to say you're het, but I am proudly and happily so. I tend towards intellectualism but only have a BA, which doesn't carry much weight, at least in public and professional worlds, no matter how much you've studied, trained, and can articulate, even teach.

    My biological heritage is Irish, Dutch, French Huguenot, Euro-mongrel. My social heritage is Roman Catholic on one side and conservative Methodist, temperance-crusading, women's rights and education on the other, with distinct East Coast sensibilities, now mellowed by more than half a century living on the Left Coast. My maternal political heritage is conservative Republican (altho what my relatives might think of current trends in the GOP I cannot imagine, since they did have brains and they did think and they did have a social conscience), yet I am much farther left in my outlook than any elected official I know. My paternal political heritage is blue collar Democratic, except that my dad broke with his family on politics and allied with my mother's family's conservatism.

    I'm a former hippie, a home-birth advocate, a home death and green burial advocate, an opponent of capital punishment and resorting to warfare to resolve humankind's differences. I support the right to conscious self-deliverance. I rejoice in any and all consensual expressions of love and eros. I'm a lover and a mom.

    I have never missed voting in an election and I disrespect those who don't avail themselves of this hard-won right. (I have ancestors who fought the Brits in the American Revolution.) I support workers' rights. I recognize our interdependence on this planet, so could be called a greenie. I'm a committed environmentalist in my day-to-day life (in terms of eating locally grown food, expanding public transit, recycling, preserving open space and wildlife, opposing exploitation of natural resources [strip mining, oil-drilling, nuclear facilities, agribusiness, monocultures, clear-cutting timber, overuse of pesticides, genetic modification, etc.]) I want to make the city streets "safe for dancing," as my old friend Tony Serra said when he ran for mayor of SF on the Platypus Party ticket.

    Well, you got me going there, my friend. Thought-provoking read, as I said. ;-)

    xo,
    Macha

    34 weeks 2 days ago
  • Eridanus (not verified)

    Lovely azaleas!

    [cough][gag][snort][sneeze]

    Just lovely...

    I know what you mean.

    36 weeks 5 days ago
  • Anonymous (not verified)

    I feel you. There is too much bs- particularly when people decide that their temperament is tantamount to truthful and ignore everyone else.
    I get irked by immature extroverts or closet introverts who ignore you REPEATEDLY and then pretend you're out of line for being upset by the time they can't pretend you didn't say anything anymore. I find that the same people will ignore you if you blow up right away, too, and that it's because they just don't think that honoring what you value is important to maintaining a relationship, or even worse: that you don't know what you value at all and that it's all a mind game for their pleasure or annoyance. Then they call you passive-aggressive, aggressive, moody, touchy and temperamental. I call them "not listening".

    36 weeks 6 days ago