I've started a second short-term blog counting down the days to the G8 which will bring the leaders of the eight largest economic powers in the world (alright, seven and Canada if you want to be technical) a couple of miles from my front door.
Things have taken a surreal quality here and I wanted to provide real-time rants and reporting of the strange landscape. I was going to leave the blog anonymous until our bad boy cat jumped into my lap as I was writing it this morning.
To his chagrin, I kept my eyes intently on the screen and my fingers on the keys. He nipped once, twice, three times at my wrist. The fourth time was too hard, so I lifted one hand from the keyboard to place him on the floor as I continued working the passage. A few minutes later he bounced back up and settled in for combination of purring too loud and slapping at my fingers to get my attention. It worked. We've settled on a compromise position.
We have three cats (don't ask, it wasn't supposed to be that way). Sadie wouldn't jump on a lap if you slathered it with salmon. Bess drives me crazy by sitting on the floor next to you pawing and mewing until you pick her up. On the other paw, Bit takes charge. There is no question of how he feels and how he thinks things should work. I respect him for that. I may not be crazy about some of his demands, but I'm not going to punish him for making them. He's not hurting me or taking anything away from me by disagreeing with my choices.
I am a former employee of the company which is hosting the G8, my husband works for Homeland Securty. Although neither of us have any official ties or involvement with the event, one of the first readers with whom I shared the G8 blog asked if I wasn't "biting the hand that feeds you."
No, I was just nipping a little to draw attention to things that matter to me. If I became libelous or seditious, they could take me out of the chair.
But purring too loud and slapping at their fingers is my constitutionally protected right.
There's a atmosphere of fear and silence here that makes people lower their voices in public places when they talk about the elephant in our living room.
The excessively restrictive public gathering laws put in place by local officials could work as the drafters hope and qwell both free speech and potential violence... or they could backfire and create a larger problem.
It may turn out that all the security measures will gel and this will not be a terrorism target. I don't want to think about the alternative.
I probably should care more of the implications of global economics, but I don't have a dog in this hunt. I support lawful expression and don't want anyone on any side of this mess to be injured or worse. I question the wisdom in bringing it here, when there are more remote areas which could be more secure.
And so, I'll just keep nipping away.
Please check out my G8 blog and regularly updated links at www.journalscape.com/G8countdown. If you know anyone who may be interested, please pass the link on.

Copyright 2004 Judi Griggs