The war started. I was at my office in the financial district watching the bombs fall on Baghdad. A horrible feeling of disgust fell over me. Why were we "liberating" Iraq? So their leader is a tyrant, but so is Robert Mugabe. Why were we not "liberating" Zimbabwe? Politics, oil and a unfinished family vendetta?

Fifteen minutes into the first bombs falling on the sleeping city I picked up my bag and left work to exercise my right to dissent. The protestors had already begun that morning-blocking intersections and creating havoc in the city. I was torn between the right to dissent and protest with the disruptive nature of the protests directly affecting the city that has consistently voiced its opposition to our country's tyrant. Their intentions were to create chaos and havoc to the financial district to hopefully disrupt the economy. However, studying economics and reading the paper you would have known, San Francisco is less a major financial hub than LA due to buyouts during the dot-commie boom. Much of the powerful financial institutions are no longer headquartered in the city but have moved out of state, even out of the country. A shutdown of the city would hardly cause a blip in the national economy (which is what happened) but cause economic hardships to our own local economy.

Targeting specific corporations and government entities is much more efficient protest and sit ins should have been the prime goal of the groups involved. It did happen, don't get me wrong; however, the chaos that ensued throughout the afternoon and into the night was a sure sign that most were out to be apart of a power-in-numbers situation and to abuse that power to unleash their unruly childish behavior. Break away groups preferred to cause chaos in the streets by knocking down anything not tied down and spraying unnecessary graffiti. These fringe groups preferred to cause problems for the police rather than voice a message of dissent. It was pathetic and disheartening since many of the ratings hungry news stations would undoubtedly go on to focus their coverage on the unruly and nonsensical. Most were high school aged kids or so-called anarchists who obviously choose chaos over order because its much easier to do as they please then actually rationalize rules and boundaries meant to not only protect others but themselves. Without a doubt they are the first to cry "VICTIM!" when the police take them down.

Being apart of the break away march that tried to take over the Bay Bridge during the evening commute, there were definite rifts between the marchers-some wanting to do employ disruptive sit-ins while others preferred to use the mature tactic of bottle throwing and threatening violence against cops. A group of us were able to get onto a bridge exit that was simultaneously being blocked by a police line. In retaliation we sat. The police did nothing but stand there, club in hand. Then a group of idiot punks (well they dressed the part but were probably rebelling against their parents in Walnut Creek) felt the need to rush the police line with a dumpster and proceed to barrage the police with glass bottles. That was when all hell broke loose with the police counteracting with club swinging and it was over-before it even began.

This type of idiocy continued throughout the night and into the next nights of protesting, until I myself felt the protests were counteracting the anti-war statement. I knew the protests wouldn't stop the war, but show our president that not all of us are falling for his bullshit ultimatum that if you aren't with the war you are anti-troops and un-American. But for some, the need to destroy our city and vandalize it under the guise of being anti-war was pathetic. It got to the point where I often found myself looking for these idiots in the crowd and wishing I could take them down myself. What was a need for our government to be told that we dissent against the war turned into a battle to protect our own city and to rid ourselves of out-of-town suburbanites and teenage anarchists who I will go on the record and say are all fucking idiots. I knew those types in high school and they were beat up for a reason…