#i94shutdown

[ramblinturtle1738-blog]

I take pictures because I'll be able to show my children that I stood for change, and that I'll stay standing. Bottom photo I took tonight: I94 Eastbound.

[animusdepictions-blog]

What is the limit?

I’m all for standing up for what you believe in, however; I feel that the I94 shutdown took matters too far. How can we ask for nonviolence while intentionally performing acts of violence? Instead we should lead by example. I get the saying, “an eye for and eye” but, how long can we do that before there are no eyes left? Tonight showed me that not only are we as a society stereotyping horrifically, but we are extremely hypocritical. I get the anger and the hurt that is fueling this, but why can’t we channel that into something positive? Honestly, if things keep going the way that they are, we are only going to push ourselves into a vicious cycle. I get it, killing someone for no reason, is completely wrong, but what good does it do to to then push back and cause even more pain and suffering by more violent acts? Tonight I wasn’t standing with the police, nor with the protestors. I was sitting in a car, for what a normal drive should have taken 23 or so minutes, instead for over 2 ½ hours watching people just like me turn on each other. Within that 2 ½ hours and I witnessed fists thrown, five car accident, screams of hate toward each other, a car explode right next to me, and on top of all of that, countless basic traffic laws broken. So because people wanted to be heard, more destruction than good happened tonight. Because people were doing their jobs, and doing as they were told, there was destruction, and because people wanted to make it back to their homes, there was destruction. To me this has far surpassed a protest. It has left more people without a voice, and with more anger focused in the wrong areas than it has helped a cause of any sort. This makes me incredibly sad, and quite honestly scared for what is becoming of us as a society.