Subscribe to The Woodside WorldNews FeedSubscribe to The Woodside WorldComments

Browse > Home / News / Obama is Met by Protestors in San Francisco

Obama is Met by Protestors in San Francisco

Photo Credit: Liza Bock

Liza Bock, Staff Writer
October 27, 2011
Filed under News

On Tuesday, October 25th, Obama came to San Francisco to fundraise for his upcoming campaign. People attedning the fundraiser paid between $5,000 and $35,000 for lunch and a photo with the president. Outside the W Hotel where the fundraiser was being held, over one thousand people stood behind police barricades protesting the Keystone XL Pipeline. The pipeline proposed would carry tar sands, the dirtiest form of energy, from Alberta Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. This poses an enormous threat to the environment and would mostly benefit the rich. Obama has the ability stop the pipeline, but has yet to take any action. To pressure him to take action and stand behind his promise that “generations from now, we will be able to look back and tell our children that this was the moment when we began to provide care for the sick and good jobs to the jobless; this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal; this was the moment when we ended a war and secured our nation and restored our image as the last, best hope on Earth,” protestors from all over the Bay Area flooded 3rd and Howard.

This was the main idea of the protest, and most people had this sign. However, there were people who had other messages they wanted to get across….
She believes in taxing the rich and logic…
They support medical care, but not insurance companies…
He wants his social security…
He is against the war in Afghanistan…
He is for marijuana…
He just wants everyone to be compassionate…
And then there’s this guy, who almost wins for craziest sign…
But, considering the placement of his sign, this guy wins….
Or maybe this guy, because he obviously isn’t very aware of his surroundings. Maybe his sign should read “Unify these people?”
But whatever the message, one thing was clear: people are angry.
Most seemed to have good reasons to feel angry
and upset
and disappointed
and cheated.
But, as always, there were some people who were just angry.
Really angry.

The police knew there would be anger, and they surrounded us…

REALLY surrounded us.
From all angles.
But no one was arrested because the angry energy was put toward getting the president’s attention, not violence.
This usually requires a costume.


But can also be done by leading a different chant when everyone else is chanting about something else.
Or by being super cute….
…Even if your not there by choice.
Although these attention-getters got a lot of press, they did not get any time with the president, because that is not Obama
And neither is that.
Obama is somewhere over there. He didn’t dare come within one block of the protest.
But it doesn’t really matter that we didn’t see Obama and he didn’t see us. This movement has just begun, and these activists are here to stay.

 

For more information about the movement, visit http://www.tarsandsaction.org/rise-stop-keystone-xl/

 

 

 

 

Other stories in News

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Email This Post Email This Post       Print This Post Print This Post      

Comments

Comments are closed.