The War Comes to Utah:

Or, how I learned to quit worrying, and love the police state.


Ok, this is a multi-part, directive and participatory blog posting.

First read the article posted here:

http://www.slweekly.com/editorial/2005/edit_2005-08-25.cfm

and here:

http://www.drugpolicy.org/news/82205utrave.cfm


Full military combat regalia, eh? Well, why not? Perhaps the swat team was experiencing some battle envy, but since going to Iraq is, well, you know, kinda inconvenient, they could just get their war on by terrifying / bashing kids at a concert. Rave / Schmave, these are kids at concerts for christ's sake-- kids that the 90 faux soldiers were, purportedly, protecting and serving by stomping them to the ground and repeatedly kicking them in the ribs. I wonder how many kids would have been injured without the raid, and how many were injured in the raid.... I could do without that sort of protection, thanks anyways. What is up with all that cammo? What message were they (very purposefully) projecting? Is anyone else sick of "our" country declaring wars at home?

I am afraid that this is yet more evidence that we are no longer on a slippery slope to a police state--- we are within a police state, one which uses a somewhat friendlier facism than we have read about in history books or in Orwell, and yet certainly we are no longer in a state where there is pretense of tolerance for those who are "outside the mainstream".

And why target Raves anyways? Could it be because there is a definite theme of unity, bliss, ecstatic dance and sensuality? All of those things hurl rocks at the mirrored walls of a police state. Could that also be behind the war on cannabis?

I want peace, I want justice, I want love to prevail.

In the words of Umar Bin Hassan:
"Peace to those who come to understand that love is all you are and ever will be."

May we all understand this, and understand it soon.