Being outside with our friends inside was inspiring insanity in those of us who were randomly released. Another girl, in a situation similar to mine, was having something like a nervous breakdown and saying that she was just going to drive back to Utah and leave her friends who were in jail. The rest of us talked her down and got her the Coldsnap and ACLU numbers, but it was still hard to fight down the rising panic. With no contact with anyone in there, we could just imagine what they were going through and when they’d be out, and neither thought was appealing.

Some inspirational stories came of it, though, of snide, off-key renditions of the Star Spangled banner, water bottle bowling with fruit balls, and making godawful noise into the wee hours to make sure that the guards were as uncomfortable as the inmates.

Congratulations on staying sane through that and for talking that kid out of his horrible thoughts of taking a plea. Keep up the good work. I look forward to the news that you’ve beaten this.

From a block away, on the safer side of a line of riot cops, a friend and I saw everyone circling frantically in an attempt to obey the dispersal order. There were walls, fences, and riot cops on all sides. I saw kids, 10 or under, trying to get out. Someone who got out just before the teargas told us there were babies and elderly people in wheelchairs who had been with the Poor People’s March from the beginning who were trapped in there at that point.

My friend and I decided to get going before something happened that made us unable to get our friend out of jail the next day, and it was hard to find a road anywhere in downtown St. Paul that didn’t have a row of riot cops with masks on. Even blocks away from the Xcel center, they were closing in blocks one by one and it was starting to look like they’d block us in too. As we passed the capital, the steps were covered in police, at least 80, lined all the way to each side of the expansive lawn.

The show of force that night, and the rest of that week, was not only ridiculous but dangerous, and my heart goes out to all the other people who spent days in jail or washing teargas and pepperspray out of their eyes.

I couldnt even think, living in a country doing that to its citizens…
The song is awesome! Download isnt availeble anymore?

anyway… thumbs up from Finland. Feeling good, for a obama winning the elections

ps. sry for mispellings, if there’s any… Didnt have time to check my text.

Today on my blog, I put out a call for individuals to donate their “artifacts” of RNC 2008 to the Minnesota Historical Society. (If the items are not needed by your lawyer, of course)