Pittsburgh welcomes the world?

I actually wrote this a couple weeks ago, and then was waiting for Jon to send me photos he took at the G20, which he still hasn’t done.  Oh well!  Here we go:

I’ve been living in Pittsburgh for a few weeks now, and I was just getting used to the slower, more peaceful pace of life here.  That is, until, DUN DUN DUN…the G20.  All of a sudden, I am thrown back into the world I knew in DC: barricades, motorcades, police sirens and huge white tents.  On campus Thursday, there were conversations about Michelle Obama sightings and Russian and Japanese leaders.  That was all pretty familiar to me, until Jon and I decided to follow some of the riot police…

It was convenient to follow them, really.  We heard from friends that the action was going down not downtown, not near campus, but in our neighborhood, Bloomfield.  So following riot police was just part of walking back to our apartment.  The first sign of damage we saw was a broken window at a bank.  Then we came upon the Boston Market restaurant, where I walk by every day.  Every window in the place had been smashed with bricks and rocks.  Farther down the street, another bank, a McDonald’s and a BMW dealer had windows broken, too.

The people who did this belong to the anarchist group that seem to show up at every protest, everywhere, no matter the issue.  Their posters showed that they don’t believe in government or banks.  Ok, so that explains why they smashed bank windows.  But fast food joints?  In a working-class, residential neighborhood?  No one involved in the G20 goes to Bloomfield.  So how does breaking windows of restaurants in Bloomfield send a message to members of the G20?  That destruction happened on Thursday; on Friday, they broke windows of local businesses, including the breakfast joint where Obama ate during his campaign.  So this was not a protest against the corporate world; it was just an excuse to go break stuff.

There are two sides to this dance; there are the violent protesters, and then there are the violent police.  The problem is when non-violent protesters get punished by the violent police.  The police take any threat as serious.  And that’s what I witnessed on Thursday in Bloomfield.  The people who threw the rocks had been arrested and hauled away.  But people were still gathered around, because, like I said, this is a quiet residential area.  And if weird stuff is goin’ down, people want to see it.  But any gathering of people is threatening to a bunch of police in riot gear who just fought brick-wielding anarchists.

The first disturbing thing we saw was a cyclist get shoved against a car by police.  The biker was just riding through the street, just like the cars.  But s/he must have said something to the police, because all of a sudden s/he was pushed hard against a car and handcuffed.  A friend of the cyclist was there and able to take the bike as the police hauled away her friend.  Then the police started marching toward the crowd (Jon and I stayed as close as we could to the TV news truck; I feel comfortable near media) and telling us to disperse.  The crowd was on the sidewalks of both sides of the street, and a guy ran from one side of the street to the other.  The police must have taken that as a threat, because before he got to the other side, he was tackled to the ground and handcuffed.  Another man, a few minutes later, was handcuffed for yelling at the police to let the guy go.

Looking at everything I witnessed, I just find it so unnecessary.  There was no need for anarchist groups to destroy local businesses, just like there was no need for police to get violent with non-violent hecklers.  At least today there was an example of real protest; thousands of people marched peacefully from the university to downtown, carrying real messages about war and the economy.  One of the speakers at the march smartly said, “We’re confronting G-20 policies, not police.”

When would you sleep?

A lot of my deepest thoughts come from gchat conversations with my friends.  (Is that bad?)  The following may not be a deep thought, but it’s probably pretty unique, and at least thought-provoking.  Let me preface it with my views on sleep.  I was an awful sleeper when I was little.  At least once I week I would sneak down the stairs and watch Letterman from behind the banister so my parents couldn’t see me.  And eventually I’d stand up and say “my throat and stomach hurt.”  My dad always said, “Your throat has nothing to do with your stomach. Go to bed.”  What I was trying to get across to them is that I thought I was going to throw up.  I never really did throw up, but I was so scared of the possibility that I would that I kept myself up for hours and hours.  After I had been in bed for hours with no luck at sleep, I would cry to my dad and say I was never going to fall asleep.  His response was always the same: “You have fallen asleep every day of your life. Now think about ice skating.”  It really helped, and I think I just wanted to hear him say that every night.

Freshman year I used my lofted bed as a party cave more than a place to sleep.

My awful sleep kept up until college, where I probably wore myself out so much gabbing to my roommates that I fell asleep easier.  I know that regular yoga has helped me keep up the quick-to-sleep habits today.  But I still am not a fan of sleep.  I have a weird thing that if I nap lying down, I wake up really nauseous.  Sitting up is fine, like in a car or airplane, or even a beanbag chair.  But this takes me out of the “omg naps are glorious” category that so many people are in.  All of this leads to my general apathy toward sleep, and this question:

If there were a pill you could take that would make sleep totally unnecessary, with no negative side effects or disruptions to how your body functions, would you take it?  And if so, when would you sleep if it were purely for fun?

My answer is absolutely.  I’ve never liked sleep, and there are many more fun things I could be doing instead of sleep.  I only do it because it’s healthy.  The only times I would choose to sleep would be relaxing moments where it just happens naturally, like on the beach, after eating a big picnic in the park, or on a mountaintop after a grueling hike.  Oh and anywhere anytime in a hammock…I love those things.

Also a fan of falling asleep in moving vehicles, especially with Jon and Arselie! Photo credit: Heinz Healey