There seemed to be a lot of protests on Saturday. It's all they talked about on NPR, in any case. (I'm an NPR addict, sorry) Turns out it was Official War Protest Weekend and silly me, I scheduled a work shift. This being a college community, we of course felt obligated to join in. Not we we, I was in work all day, but you know, a sort of community "we." Erm, yes.

Anyroad, as a result of the happy little gathering, the sidewalks on campus were all covered with chalked slogans come Monday. (still are, actually - if any of you snowed in east-coast folks want to send a little moisture our way, we certainly wouldn't complain any) "NO BLOOD FOR OIL!" and "SAY 'NO' TO AGRESSION!" and the like. Pretty standard rhetoric, I think I even saw a "Make Love, Not War" out there somewhere.

What cracks me up, is that some of the "patriots" on campus seem to have decided to chalk a counter-protest last night. On the sidewalk leading to the steps of the student union, someone has written "Now Entering Potential US Target." If I wasn't having so much trouble getting my lungs to work, I'd have busted up laughing the minute I saw it. As it was, I just stood there staring at it, shaking my head. Come on people, is that the best you can come up with? Some sort of vague threat that Saddam is suddenly going to blow up the union on a campus with 10,000 students in a town with 25,000 people with his magically invisible "weapons of mass destruction?" Well Holy Hell, I'd better grab the duct tape and start sealing up my apartment now, I had no idea we were so important.

I'm all for political commentary. If you have something to say, say it! Get out there, assemble, petition, do your thing! But is there some sort of law against doing it intelligently? Honestly, do we really think we're going to sway the masses by chalking peace symbols on the ground and quoting forty-year-old clich�s? Or by spouting threats even vaguer than Mr. Bush's orange alert? I feel betrayed by my generation. Apparently, those with enough brains to compose a coherent argument (and the courtesy to refrain from marking up our sidewalks yet again) were at work that day. Go figure.