Boston
CONSIDERING THE MASSIVE INFLUX of protestors this week, Boston Common seems to be about as usual. People are eating lunch in the park, sitting on benches, and jogging on the paths. There is only one big demonstration I can find in the park this morning, put on by a group called the Green-Rainbow party. They have set up on a grassy knoll near a fleet of news trucks. The stage they have erected is decorated with hand-painted signs with messages like “The Rich Lie, The Poor Die,” “No More Prisons,” and “Anarchy is Freedom, Government is Slavery.”
There are only about 100 people convened to watch the demonstration, but as one of the speakers reminds us, “It’s not the quantity of people, it’s the quality.” They are an eclectic group. Hippies are sleeping on the lawn or playing frisbee, a few couriers lean on their bikes, a man carries a piece of white posterboard with a potleaf drawn on it, and a woman waves a sign that says Kerry=Bush=Hitler. I am approached by a man with no teeth, horrible stale beer breath, and a Janet Jackson T-shirt who tells me the government hates me. Two kids unravel a ratty blue banner painted with the words “You’re [sic] Phone is Tapped.”
