Protests in New London

Originally posted to firesofcreation.gaia.com on May 28th, 2007

In the Thursday May 24th issue of the Hartford Courant, the cover article highlighted the recent graduation at the Coast Guard Academy in which president Bush gave the commencement speech.

Outside the gates were about 1,000 protesters who outnumbered demonstrators on the opposite side who supported the Iraq occupation.

“When one of the protesters shouted that 70 percent of Americans are against the war, the retort came back, via loud-speaker: “Well, 70 percent of me thinks you’re an ass.””

This altercation shows the interesting dynamics surrounding both sides of this polarity. The general orientation of the pro peace side is to use logic and reason to support their movement’s effort to end the Iraq war. The pro war side relies more on peer pressure, passion and aggressive tactics to push their agenda. Of course there are always exceptions to this rule just like there is a piece of yin within yang and a piece of yang within yin. But from what I have observed on the most part, the conflict is between passion and reason.

I encountered the same conflicting forces at the five year anniversary of 9/11 at ground zero in NYC. At one point, I was standing by a fellow who was using statistics to back up his position of why the Iraq war was wrong. When he finished, instead of replying to his points, the opposition began to bring attention to his appearance, as if his physical condition of being fat negated his argument.

Here's some of the footage I got at Ground Zero. Some of the conversations I captured were between those who believed 9/11 was an inside job and those who believe the enemies are outside America's borders.