Destination Anywhere

Whoops. Friday kind of got away from me yesterday!

I woke up at my usual 5:00 am, and checked my computer. There was an IM message from my son Dan timed from 2 in the morning with the cryptic message "I was outside, but I'm OK." Okay, not something that strikes confidence in the heart of a mother whose first-born is 800 miles away. Oh good, here's an e-mail from Dan, saying that he and some friends were outside watching on the plaza outside their dorm, and ran back inside when tear gas was thrown. Huh?

I checked my news feed, and saw a story about how the protests around the G-20 Summit had spread to the University of Pittsburgh campus. http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090925/ts_nm/us_g20_protests_6

Oh, lovely.

So, here's what I'm grateful for,

*My son is OK.
*He got a personal example of the sometimes troublesome intersection between our freedoms of speech and assembly; and the responsibilities of officials when protesters turn to destroying property and disrupting people's places of work and residences.
*Instant communication.
*The protests didn't turn violent; although I am alarmed by the stories of police throwing tear gas at groups of students who were not wearing masks and carrying signs, just congregating to observe.
* There were more protests on campus last night, and Dan stayed inside this time.