A Different Kind of Front Line

So, I'm at work. going through the mail as I do on Thursdays. All of a sudden, in popped a company-wide message into my e-mail inbox. It's from one of our senior editors, someone who is preparing our newspaper for the duties of war coverage. I'll let you read what she sent. Note: some information has been XXXXXed out for confidential reasons.


We may be covering a WAR soon, right here in Seattle. So, it's crucial your paperwork is in order so our employees can contact each other no matter if we're working from home, in the main newspaper office, from a satellite bureau or on the street.

If there are local disturbances, you may need a XXXXXXX staff photo badge to get into the main newspaper office or a bureau. So, PLEASE start carrying your XXXX issued photo badge at all times. If you don't have one, contact XXXXXXXX, immediately so one can be issued.

A few weeks ago you were asked to update your Emergency Preparedness Information listing. If you haven't done this, or have misplaced the form, contact XXXXXX with the updated information TODAY. We certainly hope we won't have to use our "disaster plan" guidelines, but we cannot predict what local protesters or terrorists might do in Seattle if the U.S. goes to war.

Thanks for acting on this TODAY.


The paperwork in question is the Emergency Preparedness Information listing, if you didn't catch it earlier. The EPI identifies nearly everything about us, from our address and phone number to the ability to work from home and any First Aid/CPR/rescue skills. In case we are not able to get to the office, or something terrible happens, our newspaper could keep going and we can identify replacements immediately. Think of it as the org chart from hell meets a last will and testament.

But what caught my eye, along with the eye of my co-worker, is the phrase "we cannot predict what local protesters or terrorists might do in Seattle if the U.S. goes to war", bringing me to think "What the Fuck? What protesters might do?" Terrorist, yeah. I get that. But if you've been following the mainstream anti-war effort, just what the hell are a bunch of peace marchers going to do? Do the senior editors think that once war begin, we're all going to get Project Mayhem on the city where we live?

Needless to say being compared to a terrorist got me ever so pissed. As my eagle-eyed co-worker calmed me down, I composed the following reply.


Just curious about a phrase from your email below.

> We certainly hope we won't have to use our "disaster plan" guidelines, but we cannot predict what local protesters or terrorists might do in Seattle if the U.S. goes to war.

I'm curious about what, in your mind, domestic protesters would do to activate our "disaster plan." Terrorists, I fully understand, but domestic protesters? Are we talking about blocking traffic or what?

Thanks,


And then I got this sinking feeling in my gut. Senior staffers don't take kindly to the younger folk getting all snippy at their dictums. I'm sure she meant it as "Be careful, turn in your paperwork," but the idea that protesters would activate our disaster plan (whatever that is...I mean, if the city is ever in that much of a disaster when I wake up one morning, I'm calling in sick and watching the end of the world on CNN) just burns me. It completely ignores all the peaceful gestures the mainstream movement as made.

But reverse engineer this for a second.

Suppose there was something to this whole protester thing? Is there credible evidence to suggest that there will be some groups looking to rise up and crack Seattle open when the bombs start falling on Baghdad? Do the police know? Should we start screening our mail again, as we did when the anthrax attacks happened over 9/11? I open dozens of envelopes a week. I think I have a right to know if something is going on.

I kick myself. I should have emailed the senior editor with these questions, take this tone of concern at first and then open up with this blanketing of terrorists and protestors. Oh well.

A couple hours later, I get a reply. I'm thinking I'm fired.


It was pointed out in a recent news meeting that when the Gulf War broke out, some cities had protesters burning cars and blocking streets. Where you here when WTO riots happened? It was impossible to drive north and south for a few hours. If there's a terrorist threat that they might be blowing up bridges, the city could decide to close all big bridges.

From a previous look at our disaster lists, we know that about 98% of our staff has to drive across at least one major bridge to get to the XXXXXXX building. IF we can't get to work, we'll need to assign reporters to work their neighorhoods and editors will have to edit from home computers until we can get into the office.

Our master list is updated annually so we have home numbers etc. in case there's a disaster. Usually, we think of earthquakes, not war!



Okay, last graph first. No problems there. Eventually, Seattle is going to get tagged with a big quake. The one we had in February 2001 was a mere warm up, we were told afterwards. And she's right: A majority of us have to travel over a bridge. If a quake hits, and the roads crumble, like in the Kobe or World Series quakes years ago, Seattle is effectively crippled.

Up to the second graph. I agree, but I think we have, in Seattle, an infrastructure to handle remote coverage in case of a terrorist attack. If it's a quake, we're screwed. After the February 2001 quake, phone lines were out and the cell network was jammed. Reporting from a laptop would be difficult to say the least.

First graph: Oh, Christ, I don't know where to start. So, I replied with this message.


Thank you for your reply. Should war break out, I hope (as well as I'm sure you) that this city would be spared a terrorist attack and/or some knuckleheads starting a ruckus.

As for WTO, I did live here when that all went down, and I remember the sheer chaos after the police decided to fire tear gas into a crowd that was peaceful in the vast majority. I remember how difficult it was to get out of Seattle after the downtown essentially "locked down." The resulting traffic jams came from exhausted police, confused commuters and ambulatory protestors trying to figure out which end was up, and which way out was the best one.

When I lived in Chicago during the outbreak of the 1990-91 Gulf War, I noticed nearly no violence on the part of the anti-war faction. I can understand that if then (as well as in the near-future) some fringe group becomes so enraged with hopelessness and venom that they commit some horribly stupid act of vandalism (and they should be arrested for it). But I do not think the anti-war forces will try to break this city or cripple its roads. Seattle is a wonderfully tolerant place, full of peaceful activists. In the nearly four years that I have been here, I've been constantly surprised at the depth of level-headedness, eloquence and wisdom found in those who stand up for peace, human rights, the environment and much more.

I'm going to put all my cards on the table now. I'm in the anti-war camp (one of the tens of thousands who marched in last October and on Feb. 15, and who regularly protests on Saturdays in Lake Forest Park), and am a bit upset that a group of the population who has been devoted to expressing their sentiments through peaceful marches and other non-violent activities has been lumped into the same bag as terrorists, who are strictly in the polar opposite camp of social and political change. I cannot speak for everyone who is against this current, coming war, but from the people I have talked to, you don't need to worry about the tens of thousands in the mainstream anti-war camp stirring up trouble. As a matter of personal opinion, I'm concerned that should war break out, those who go to vigils in front of federal buildings will be attacked by pro-war zealots.

Again, as war appears more and more certain, I pray that the next few weeks will pass without incident in Seattle, or at another point on the globe for that matter. I can't begin to imagine the stress that's growing on your side of the building, planning to cover the ever-so-likely carnage in Iraq, and whatever blowback that may find its way to American streets. As with 9/11, the world is going to change if war happens. I just want to let you know that through such an upheaval, the majority of those who want truly peace will not attack our fine city.

Sincerely,


It's dawning on me that we're locked into opposite mindsets here. She thinks protesters have the capability to rise up and raise hell while I (on the other side) haven’t seen evidence one of that. Personally, I was around for the peace protests back in 1990 like I'm around for the ones now and I can say with certainty that there are more levelheaded people (and more of a diverse crowd) now than then. There are have been marches all over the world against this coming war, and very few arrests. If memory serves, out of the 30,000 who marched in Seattle on February 15, one was popped for vandalism. Nice odds, I figure.

Also, WTO is a popular bogeyman used by those spooked by the masses. More than 50,000 people marched in Seattle during the 1999 WTO gathering, and a handful were no good punks who trashed some stores. Meanwhile, the police (who were completely outmanned and unorganized) started to get impatient with the crowd, firing tear gas canisters into crowd-packed streets, causing far more pandemonium than preventing. The night of the major crackdown, when the downtown area was literally locked down by the mayor, had cops running through neighbors, firing tear gas canisters near private homes and sidewalk cafes. It was a mess, and it was embarrassing, and it was nearly four years ago. With the recent anti-war protests, Seattle has proven itself to be capable of marches without mayhem.

But the senior editor thought otherwise.


I don't think any of us want war--and most of us don't agree with Bush. But, our job as a newspaper is to report the news and try to fairly report on both sides. And, we can't do that if we can't get to work. And, we learned from WTO, Seattle is no longer a peaceful city. Mayor Schell naively thought that protesters would obey their parade permits and not cause problems. But, the folks that rioted didn't sign the parade permit!

We all have been told that foreign terrorists were trying to blow up the space needle and Seattle is considered a likely target in the future. And when disruption starts in a city, it gives people who are disenfranchised for whatever reason (poverty, drugs, mental illness) a chance to "act out" destructively. Remember the pictures of the twenty-somethings breaking up a Starbucks? I'm sure few of them could explain WTO; they just saw it as a chance to destroy the establishment.

It only takes a few people (like the anarchists that came to WTO from Eugene) to start a fight. And then it escalates. If we're lucky and Bush comes to his senses we won't need this information for WAR, but, we'll have these packets ready to go if/when we have a major earthquake and our building crumbles into the Sound. Now that will be the challenge!


Again, we were shooting volleys over our heads, happy to be locked in what happened in 1999 and completely forgetting what has been happening in Seattle and around the world.

She also forgot something so obvious that separates terrorists and today's protesters, and I'm so sad and disappointed she (and I for that matter) didn't consider it.

Terrorists strike with little to no warning. Their damage is immediate and brutal, and afterwards they contact the media.

Protesters, on the other hand, organize mostly out in the open and contact the press when they are going to march. Usually the marchers have press liaisons.

Two different creatures.

So, who's right? Who's wrong? Both of us. Neither.

I think we are at an impasse. She is concerned about safety, as well as getting a newspaper out to the public. I’m concerned about safety as well, but think she’s way off on the whole vision of the Seattle anti-war community (or a lurking fringe of it) looking like marauding Urak-Hai. Looking back at it, I think I couldn't change her mind, as much as I couldn't be unoffended by what she said about protesters. In a way, that's what this whole damn Iraq has been about here on the American home front...perceptions locked into place, never moving or altering as the clock clicks down and hell is about to be unleashed.

At least ours was a civil and thoughtful argument.