First up is the above pic. I admit to being influenced by The "Blog" of "Unnecessary" Quotation Marks, which a friend of mine follows. Now I abuse punctuation marks myself, but jeez, what's the purpose of them on that sign at the right? And why is she using 'single' quotation marks instead of the default "double" ones?
Nothing sarcastic to say about this second pic. It brings back old memories. That bridge is on University Avenue, and that's Manzanita Hall (a 15-story girl's dorm) in the left-background, and the Physical Sciences Building (where all my chemistry classes were) in the right-background..
But the relevant memories here are the anti-war demonstrations I participated in way back in the early 70's. I recognize that the protesting Iranians have a smaller population-base to draw from, but on the night after the US invaded Cambodia, we not only filled up that bridge, but took over University from the foreground clear back to Manzanita. We were drunk, we were stoned, but we weren't about to go to Cambodia for Tricky Dick's little war.
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There are two ways to look back on those protests. One way is to say we didn't accomplish much. We marched in the streets around ASU/Tempe - University, Mill, and Apache. The police blocked off the streets from traffic as we made our circuit, and after we had let off our steam (and ran out of joints) we all went home and crashed.
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But on a larger plane, there were enough protests nationwide, involving not just students but adults - white & black, rich & poor, liberal & centrist - that eventually Nixon had to do away with the much-hated draft, and bring the troops home.
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We'll see if the Iranian protests can also change the world. Two of my co-workers are from there, so this crisis cuts near to me. If it sustains its energy, both in Iran and throughout the world, then great things are possible.
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Well damn. I went and got serious anyways.
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