I grew up in a very liberal household and was politically aware at a very young age. I followed politics religiously drifting farther left each year. In '96 I proudly voted for Nader. Then I had to go out and work for a living. I'm not saying that paying rediculously high taxes on a rediculously low paycheck turned me conservitive. It's when my job put me in a position to view my side from the "other side" You see, one of my first jobs was as a currior in and arround Seattle. Well in mid December 1999 I had to deliver a care package to a downtown hotel for someone who was in town for the WTO. By the time I got to the hotel. that later would turn out to be the same hotel where then President Bill Clinton was staying, things had gotten harry enough that the police had barraceded the hotel and would let noone in. Well, i turned arround and headed back to my VW Van care package still in hand. On my way back I encountered some protesters who since I was semi nicely dressed stated yelling at me and were locked arms so as to not let anyone pass. I tried to explain my situation to some of them and they just kep chanting saying that they couldn't let anyone through, so I started to belittle one of the protesters telling them to take off thier damn Nikes since one of the groups they were protesting was infact Nike.... Nothin' so to make a long story short I ditched the package and stayed there for the day quesioning the protesters quizing them slowly beginning to realise how utterly uninformed they were. That week (the protests lasted almost a week, I had eventually got out by the way) I started to listen to some guy who shared my frustration with teh protesters only to discover that he, unfortunately was one of those local dirty conservitive talk radio guys, well I still listened occasionally and soon learned that these guys weren't alwayse wrong and the things I had been told about them weren't true and *gasp* some of the things they said that challenged my deeply held convictions acctually held up to close scrutiny. Well the story isn't entirely over, but my pancakes are ready.
