According to Friend, I myself am too much of a bleeding-heart nattering nabob of negavitism. An effete intellectual Do-gooder who spends too much time bemoaning the sins of the world am I, says he.

Guilty as charged.

Friend's lecture only served to reinforce my sense of disconnect with my own society. I was again forced to ask myself at what point I lost the impulse to be another Conehead and consume mass quantities like everyone else... Maybe, I reckon, it has something to do with having suffered and continuing to identigy and sympathize with the suffering of others.

Maybe it has to do with my agreement with the protesters in Seattle at last week's World Trade Organization (WTO) meeting that globalization has damaged many more people than it has benefited.

What happened last week in Seattle was no accident. Nor was it unforeseen. Sure, Mayor Schell of Seattle was clueless, but that was because he has probably never booted up a PC and logged onto anything more challenging than AOL. There was EVERY INDICATION on the Internet that the WTO protests would be a singularly large event. From the N30 sites to Michael Moore's organizing letter published here only last weekend, the Internet organizing for this event was intense and widespread.

And that's what I mean by "disconnect." I feel every day that I am now travelling in a culture that does not understand me any longer and has little tolerance for people who think the way I do.

UNDERSTANDING MEDIA

Friend believes that because of the gem-like quality of our souls we are not accountable for feeding The Beast. We can wash our hands, like Pilate, and lavish our lives in the fruits provided by the Empire.

Watching King Publishing's "Washington Weekly" on the Howard University cable channel last week, I heard one journalist from the Mouthpiece Media say this:

"Well, this thing in Seattle was just a chance for the Generation - Xers out there, having grown up hearing stories about the great and glorious Vietnam war protests of their parents, to finally have a little protest of their own..."

And then there was this from another Talking Head:

"...A lot of the people on the streets of Seattle hardly knew what WTO stands for. That's the level of informed protest you are finding out there..."

WAIT A DAMNED MINUTE! How can these people say things like this, prejorative and basically ad hominem, and call it journalism?

BUT MOST GLARING, from the point of view from someone who also makes his living as a professional journalist, is this fact:

NEVER ONCE DO ANY OF THESE DENIGRATORS MENTION THAT THIS PROTEST INCLUDED MAJOR AND RESPECTED LABOR ORGANIZATIONS LIKE THE AFL-CIO, LEGAL ORGANIZATIONS LIKE ACLU, ENVIRONMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS LIKE THE SIERRA CLUB AND GREENPEACE, OR CITIZEN ADVOCATES (and former Presidential Candidate, BTW) LIKE RALPH NADER.

NO. INSTEAD, AND ONCE AGAIN, THE MOUTHPIECE MEDIA DARLINGS ARE SAYING THIS IS JUST A BUNCH OF UNRULY, LAWLESS, ANARCHIST-INSPIRED KIDS ON THE STREETS. AND THAT'S NOT THE TRUTH.

If anything --- and probably much to the lament of the Corporate-controlled Talking Heads --- this was one example of the youth of the world, not just America, stepping forward to say that the dumbing-down and advertising brainwash had not completely succeeded. These were kids and older people, clergymen, labor leaders, environmentalists, saying "We *don't* buy it!" We are not just global consumers, we are also global citizens. We want a say in our futures because we have a stake in our futures.

OPEN THE WINDOWS

IF that happened, then the so-called "Battle in Seattle" served a higher purpose. It provided a wake-up call to governments and a wedge into greater real democracy for the peoples of our planet.

No wonder most people rate journalists right above used car salesman in terms of the respect they show us.

By making my living as part of this tawdry media show, I am often wracked by guilt.

Friend, on the other hand, is not.

Friend believes that because of the gem-like quality of our souls we are not accountable for feeding The Beast. We can wash our hands, like Pilate, and lavish our lives in the fruits provided by the Empire.

But I wash --- and wash --- and wash my hands and still I know that the damned Lady Macbeth spot will not disappear. My hands look as bloody as ever.

So I, for one, genuinely hope that a few people were left sleepless in Seattle during the WTO protests. I hope that maybe, just maybe, a few people were able to ignore the cacophonous denigrations of the Mouthpiece Media and hear the heartfelt concerns of their fellow citizens about the future --- not the global economy and trade and tariff agreements by multinationals --- but the future of our world and we, the people.

IF that happened, then the so-called "Battle in Seattle" served a higher purpose. It provided a wake-up call to governments and a wedge into greater real democracy for the peoples of our planet.

IF that happened, then some of us will sleep better next year and for years to come.