As I sit here, reading about the unpleasantness
at the International Monetary Fund meeting in Prague,
I can't help but wonder if this is how normal people
felt watching the bus boycott in Alabama in 1955 or the
start of the sit-in movement in the early 1960s.
These people--in Prague this week, in Seattle last
November--have very real concerns about how we are going
to tend to the world's poor and what we will do to protect
our natural environment. But it all feels very distant to
me (which is odd, I live in Seattle and could see the problems
from my office).
The trees here are beautiful, the water is spectacular,
and the opportunities for people to actually see and touch
and feel something that isn't manmade are constant. I could
lie and say that sometimes I worry about whether there are
enough parks in Bangladesh or if the wild Thai snuffle-trout
is endangered, but I don't. Not really. I'm too busy.
If I did think about it, I'd probably hope that whoever was
in charge was doing the right thing. But I wouldn't get all militant
about it.
I suspect that many normal Joes may have felt the same way
about the start of the civil rights movement. You know,
before it was such a big deal. And I think that what the protesters
in Seattle and Prague are worried about might be that important.