My City got real weird this week. I've lived here my entire adult life. I got my first job here (well, OK, in Bellevue) right after college and other than my short detour to Europe and our recent move to NE Snohomish County have called the city of Seattle home since I was 21 years old. I still work here, my wife works here, and my kids were born and go to school here. The one thing about this city I have never understood is it's weird combo of arrogance matched with a strange inferiority complex. The city has a collection of boosters that are determined to prove that Seattle is a "world class city." They strive to yank the world's spotlight onto us and say "Look, we really are world class aren't we?!" They do things like make Olympic Bids, bring major sporting events (Final Four, Goodwill Games) here, and host international 'events' like a meeting of the World Trade Oganization. I think the reason they do this is that inferiority complex. Our neighbors to the south, San Francisco, Silicon Valley, and L.A. are viewed with envy by these folks. I don't know why. You would have to pay me several tons of money to live anywhere near a major city in California. These boosters are always squawking about Boeing and Microsoft, cherries, apples, and salmon (the latter all come from Alaska anyway since ours are all but gone!) Well they finally got their way and have hopefully learned the lesson of being careful what you wish for. The WTO was the worst thing to ever happen to this city. While nobody got killed and the physical damage was in reality limited, the psychological and reputation damage was extensive and did nobody any good. For well over a month we have been bracing for traffic snarls and protests that would disrupt our normal routine. The week picked for this event could not have been worse. The first weekend of December, right after Thanksgiving is traditionally the first week of holiday shopping in a decorated downtown Seattle. The Carosel in Westlake Square, the big star and holiday train at The Bon Marché, visiting Santa, lights in the trees, etc. Instead we were treated to chaos and surrealism on a grand scale. On Monday traffic into town was unusually light. It felt like 1988 again. I thought, well if everybody stays home this might be an OK week. Later on Monday I saw my first "protest." I am an adamant supporter of the US Constitution, especially the hallowed right of free speech, so I have no problem with the public voicing of opinions (If I didn't this web site would be an exercise in hypocrisy!) The "protest" I saw was not so much a demonstration of free speech as it was a rolling street party, dance, and later, an excuse for bad behavior. A huge crowd consumed and shut down the intersection of 3rd & Pine streets. These folks did not seem to have any point beyond playing drums, dancing and each calling for some random issue to be addressed from saving wildlife or trees, to eating nothing but vegetables (Life is life folks be it vertebrate or vegetable... *anything* you eat involves killing. Get over it.) They turned their attention and derision against the McDonalds on the corner and then things got ugly. Windows were broken, walls were vandalized, a Metro bus was vandalized and climbed upon. The folks dressed as sea turtles wisely kept marching down third to distance themselves from the morons. McDonalds' food sucks, and this place seems to draw a bad element to this corner anyway (despite the recent brillant move of playing vintage 1950s country music over the loudspeakers inside and out) but breaking the windows and spraypainting "meat is murder" on the wall isn't going to change anything. If anything it just makes the 'protesters' look immature and stupid. Above Left: The mob gathers. Above Right: The revenge of the veggies. Below Left: The Turtles Flee South down 3rd. The Cops were present but did nothing to interfere with any activities, even the destruction of property. Later that would change. You have all seen the TV footage. None of this was neccessary. I feel mostly for the folks who came here with a reasonable message. They were completely overshadowed by the morons bent on destruction, or as they refer to it "anarchy." Well If you want anarchy why aren't you living in the woods naked and eating nothing but nuts and berries? Your arguments of destroying the present society hold no water when there are plenty of alternative locations for you to go build your new one. Tearing down the letters off of Nike Town (while wearing Nike shoes for god's sake!) does *nothing* to change society, but just serves to inflate your adolescent ego. These so-called anarchists are the greatest of hypocrites. The Cops of course also deserve some blame. The unrest became nothing but an excuse to live out all sorts of macho domination fantasies. I know quite a few cops (via my associations in the local hockey community... I have refereed many a SPD men's league hockey games) so I ran into quite a few familiar faces in the crowds of cops this week. When I talked to them they were all excited and animated as if they had made it to the Super Bowl of Cop-dom. Getting garbed in stormtrooper gear and marching in phalanxes down the street to the beat of nightsticks became nothing but foreplay for the inevitable commision of assault on protesters and normal citizens alike. As we watched some footage of a cop kicking some guy in the groin and shooting him with a 'rubber bullet' at extreme close range I asked my lawyer wife: "Why is it the state can assault a citizen?" "Because they are the State." was her answer. She used to be a prosecutor, and is now a public defender, and as a result works closely with the SPD. For her sake I won't share any of her specific opinions of the cops with you, but they are not too positive. She works handling misdemeanors in Seattle Municipal Court and will be very busy in the coming weeks. NOTE, March 2000: It took MONTHS, and guess what? Every single case was dismissed! I didn't even come to work downtown on Tuesday, taking the opportunity to "work from home"... which I took as a chance to work at my other job over in Bothell. That is when things got really weird, especially that night. The cops finally started to try and put some distance between the protesters and the WTO delegates. It seems they used too much force on some and not enough on others. So Tuesday night all hell broke loose. As we sat at our kids' swim lessons in Ballard watching the live news coverage I got really pissed off. This whole thing was nothing but a circus for tha cameras' benefit! The news people *need* to have something exciting to show, so the cops and the 'anarchists' were more than happy to oblige! Look Folks: A three-way circle jerk! Too bad we didn't have one of our usual late autumn weather weeks with high winds, driving rain, and frigid temps.... Nothing like a cold rain and flying plywood courtesy of mother natuire to keep the morons at bay! Instead it was very mild. In fact Thursday was sunny (though the sun only seems to get about 15ª above the horizon this time of year.) Wednesday was the beginning of Sureallattle. Downtown became an armed camp. When I have travelled and lived overseas I saw sights that I never thought I'd see in America, much less here in my own city of Seattle. Armed soldiers or armored cars on the streets. But sure enough it has happened here. I took a walk at lunch and took a few shots: The Infamous Black Helicopters show up over the Olympic Tower home of amazon.com Dennis Grizzle of The Bon Marche boards up and saves the holiday train. Thanks Dennis!       Wednesday afternoon we were told that our building would close at 4 so we could get out of downtown before dark (which happens at 4:30 this time of year.) I was in the 8th floor men's room sitting on the toilet when I was flushed from the west side of our building by waves of tear gas. That stuff hurts... and I was 8 floors above it! Tear gas is a highly effective motivator to finish ones business and vacate immediately! It was announced over the loudspeakers that the building was in a lock-down and the garage was closed. We were finally let out along the 4th avenue side around 4:40, and I made my way down to the Kingdome where Sue and I spent almost an hour trying to drive to Ballard to pick up our kids. Here are some shots I took along the way down 4th from Pine to Union Station: This was bizarre. Thursday I heard that local Seattlites had just about had enough of the 'anarchists' and had started cleaning up the grafitti and even attacking these out-of-town whackos up on Capitol Hill the night before. Heh. Caught between the cops on one side and pissed off residents on the other! I must not have 'fit the profile' of a protester as I was always able to walk freely about and right through the lines of cops and national guardsmen. I walked down to my credit union near the Westin, where the delegates and dignitaries like President Clinton were staying, and passed through line after line of them. I kept thinking "who is the bozo that thought up the idea of inviting the WTO here?" I hope they lose their job. Today is Friday and I'm so glad it is all over. I truly hope that the local residents 'take back' their city from this event today and from here on out and never let this sort of thing happen again. Being 'World Class' is just not worth the price, thank you. We have too many problems of our own without bringing the whole world's problems and all the associated whiners here with them... not too mention the attendant assholes that feed off this sort of unrest. If that's the price of entry into 'world class' status, we'd prefer to remain a rainy miserable backwater thank you. Of course the national and international media will not see any of this, and just remember us via the footage of chaos and disorder. But maybe that will keep them away for a while too. --chuck goolsbee seattle, wa       Here is some early feedback on the page. Feel free to send your own! Don't bother telling me my HTML sucks, I already know that! Craig (who provided the "just do it" image above... where he got from I don't know) said: Yeah, I started my own "WTO" web scrapbook last night. I grabbed a couple of your pics and added em' to "memory lane". Check it out.   Clark said: Loved your WTO editorial. You summed it up perfectly. Two points you left out: The guy stomping the Nike sign was wearing Nike shoes...there's somebody dedicated to the cause. (Chuck says: fixed that!) Also, the images of a Coffee House being looted was just too Seattle to believe. It was like an Almost Live skit. Bravo on the site and pics and commentary. Clark     Shawn says: >At 4:43 PM -0800 12/3/99, chuck goolsbee wrote: >http://www.goolsbee.org/wto.html Yeah, I was watching a lot of the live coverage. If it makes you feel any better, I was cheering on the cops. :-) >No it doesn't make me feel too much better. Sorry about that. It's easier being smug and complacent when it's not happening in your own town. :-( >The Cops, the media, the 'anarchist' assholes were all just creating a big circle jerk as far as I am concerned. Yup. >Mind if I add your comment to my page? Will it reflect badly on me if you do? Yes? OK, go ahead. :-) Shawn     John Said:     Bryan said: Nice commentary. BTW, speaking of living out macho domination fantasies, are any of those cops you know gay and single? I've seen several this week that I would LOVE to get arrested by! Yum!   Chuck's response: Uh, sorry Bryan, you are on your own on that one... I prefer keeping my skull intact thanks!   Adil said: Hi Chuck , I really liked and agreed with most of what you said in your article, specially the lines about vegetarians. However I really see no problems of hosting such prestigious events because it must benefit the city one way or another. As you know I really love Seattle and I was very shocked to say the least when I saw the events on TV. Rather than blaming the authorities for organising such events, it is probably better to try and find out why has this happened and try and avoid it next time, because I am sure Seattle will hold other important events in the future. Obviously I could be very wrong but I would like to know your opinion on this. Cheers "Dr. Bob" says: BTW: I thought this was really good. I'm glad you noted that the media contributed heavily to the poor behavior on both parties by glamorizing the events. I'm all for free speech, but something simply has to be done about the media. I think we should make them accountable for damages resulting from their irresponsible behavior. The worst part about 99% of civil disobediance is that it's targeted at the wrong audience. Yea, lets burn down our own city to say how upset we are! Lets hurt our own innocent people and local businesses because we hate the _World_ Trade Organization so much. I saw much the same thing when I was attending the University of California Santa Cruz. People came there with ambition looking for a high profile cause to propell them to national glory. But most of the causes were not well thought out. Still they followed on blindly like sheep. I always enjoyed the quest for "nonconformity". People would dress in ratty flannels and torn demin pants with tatoos and lots of piercings with long hair to make a statement of individuality, just like everyone else. I dressed in t-shirts and shorts and I was ostricized because I wouldn't non-conform like everybody else. Many of them making such statements were ill-prepared for the rebuttals of a 5th year psychology student though. Although that wasn't nearly as fun as my arguments that political correctness was nothing more than censorship which would eventually result in book burnings a la nazi germany if left unchecked. I love watching history repeat itself. Dr. Bob "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." -- Benjamin Franklin, 1759