you don't have to go home, but you can't stay here

yeah i said it.

there are a number of reasons that i'm not out there demonstrating. it's kind of new to me -- seeing some major forms of demonstration going on right around me and not having anything to do with it other than as an observer. (it actually reminds me a little bit of walking to class in athens, though most activists there had their act together.) the main reason is that, well, a lot of what i heard and read about prior to the start of the g-20 was extremely vague -- not in direction, but in purpose. i thought the idea of a "catch-all" protest seemed irresponsible, counterproductive for everyone, and disorganized, and decided to stay out of it.

this is not me bragging: i was right.

this is what's supposedly going on right now.

this is the angry drunk bureaucrat's open letter to g-20 protesters.

protesters, i hear you. we hear you. but you're going about this all wrong, and this is the result.

you're not in new york and you're not in DC. you're in the steel city, and people here not only don't like it when their neighborhoods and livelihoods are attacked by a bunch of out-of-towners in ski masks, they downright hate you for it. pittsburgh may not be massively patriotic in the national sense, but it's practically foaming at the mouth with hometown pride, and here you are attacking everything we've got and care about. i and many others will support you in assembling and demonstrating and making noise and blocking traffic, but starting fires and hurling "human waste" and rocks is over the line.

if you need help planning some sort of demonstration in the future, perhaps rely a little more heavily on city residents for guidance. we may be able to provide some insight into the workings of our fair city, and save you from either self-destructing or being expelled from the region by fired-up yinzers.

for example: STAY THE HELL AWAY FROM PAMELA'S, YOU RAGING JACKASS. try to pull that crap in the daylight and you'll only have your bandanna to save you. from the patrons, not the police.

in other news, last night i watched cops in riot gear spill out of a PAT bus like it was a clown car. right in front of me. out on forbes by the library and schenley plaza. the lit-up sign on the front of the bus said "SPECIAL" and "PITTSBURGH WELCOMES THE WORLD!" the next time anyone makes an argument for cutting public transportation funding... well, there you go.