August 29, 2004
The Invasion
We went downtown to congratulate Angie on her new job and came past Union Square where the Critical Mass was starting. The park was filled with bikes and protesters, and for the first time in months, for me at least, New York felt like New York again.
The police were there, of course. With the republicans arriving the mayor * seems determined to make the city a police state, even though we all know that terrorism starts at lightly guarded airports early in the morning. But republicans count on fear, so there were helicopters hovering in the sky like gunships and police with plastic handcuffs standing at barricades. Strangest of all was the Kodak blimp that floated above – an airship from another age hanging silently like an indifferent eye. It was unclear whether it was watching or advertising to the crowd.
With a yell, the bikes started downtown while the people on the streets cheered. One woman stood smiling broadly and cried, “Shut em down. Fuck yes, ride on, shut those mother fuckers down!” A wild eyed man in a pirate hat and a cape bore a POW MIA flag and yelled, “Ride on Friends, don’t stop! Into the breach!”
Tomorrow is the big demonstration, and my friends and I plan to be there with our own dirigibles. Our messages may lack subtlety, but at least you won’t mistake them for advertising. I’m looking forward to it. There is truly nothing better than New York when it is in the streets.
* Regarding Michael Bloomberg; could that moldwarp be any more vile? To tell us not to gather in our own streets, and then to threaten us with arrest -- those of us who live here -- while welcoming those hateful, war-mongering, liars… well, it’s is beyond comprehension. Someday, Bloomberg, the animals of this city will rise up against you, the pigeons and rats, the homebound tigers and monkeys, the gazelles and the strays, and they will drive you into the river you jellyfish, you putrescent invertebrate, you weeks-old codfish, and not even that cute ASPCA cop on Animal Planet will be able to rescue your scaly ass.
