"Protest pen" REALLY??????

I think the last time I was on the mass pike, I had to pass myself off as a christian – this time I passed as a democrat, I’m sure!!! I entered Western Mass last nite proceeding to Boston accompanied by a host of ‘I love you’s’, peace symbols and hand clapping. I thought I was in California driving down the Mass Pike into the city, so many folks were so happy to see my truck.

I missed CodePINK’s weekend activist workshops this morning but heard immediately about the ‘protest pen’ the city has devised to hold demonstrators both away from the convention and the public! It sounds horrendous, from 9’ tall fences with barbed wire, 6”of water standing in the pen (Boston has been getting lots of thunder storms!), not to mention distance from participants. Not only are we supposed to stand in the designated ‘free speech’ area which is surrounded by city buildings and is under the T (Bostonian for BART I believe), so there is black asphalt buckling and mixing with cracked cement on the ground, tall buildings on the sides, and huge old concrete and steel pillars with structures overhead that provide(d) support for public transportation – but there is barbed wire strung overhead in case some rambunctious soul wants to heft herself over the fence and into the rows and rows and rows of police that further surround the ‘free speech zone’!