By Emma Kaplan
What a night! I went down to Occupy Seattle at
Some of the organizers said they felt this act is a major attack on civil liberties and further shredding the Constitution. We decided it was important to wake people to the truth. We had made signs on the spot that read “Shame on Maria Cantwell”, and “Stop Indefinite Detention Here and All Over the World”.
Hundreds of people were waiting in line to get in to Cantwell’s talk, and our discussions with them generated a lot of controversy.
Many people were shocked that Maria Cantwell voted for this, while others had no idea what the NDAA actually was. Some people said they agreed with us – “but things would be worse if a republican was in office”. I told them it doesn’t matter who is in office, it matters what is happening in the streets. We don’t control the elections anyway, the elections control us!
Some people were incredibly hostile because they could not stand the idea of people criticizing the Democrats. One person had the audacity to tell a Black man who was part of our crew to "go back to
A college student who majored in history joined us on the spot, and challenged people to think critically about the democrats and to "wake up!" Two people came up to us out of the line off of our signs and soapboxing and gave us 2 tickets to go inside. There were more than a couple people waiting in line who had 99% stickers on. While me and an occupier named
When Maria Cantwell starting speaking, I yelled Mic Check and began exposing the National Defense Authorization Act, why it was wrong, and the need for people to oppose it. Some people started chanting "6 more years", meaning 6 more years of Democrats (and essentially 6 more years of war, torture indefinite detention, etc) One guy tried to choke me while another person attempted to cover my mouth with his hand.
At the same time, there were other people who pointed at me and stood up and said yes I agree with you, and others who clapped and gave the thumbs up. We got dragged out pretty quickly but we shouted about the NDAA the whole way. We left to go up to the college to upload our video. One of the other protesters told us that one guy came out and asked if they were with that girl who disrupted Maria Cantwell because of the NDAA. He said, "Yes I was really offended about that." The protester asked what he meant and he said, “I was really offended that Maria Cantwell voted for that."
RECALL SEN MARIE CANTWELL. SIGNT THIS PAGE AND WE WILL FILE!!!!