Before traveling to Quebec City, I never doubted our ability to change our own system from within. When I first marched on Quebec City on Thursday, April 18th, I was embarrassed by my anarchist peers who chanted about smashing the state. But by the time we were driving back
to Ithaca, I understood the necessity of such a strong message.

Many people feared that the events (literally) surrounding the Summit of the Americas Conference would lead to heated debate about the denial of freedoms of speech and divert attention away from the fundamental reason why tens of thousands of people gathered in Quebec: to show
opposition to the globalization of our planet.

But I must argue that these two issues are one and the same. Who elected Bush? I sure as hell didn't. And neither did the millions of people in the Americas who will be poked at like ants if the FTAA is pushed through. Who is being represented? Whose ideas? Whose agenda? Whose voice? The FTAA will affect us all. I hope for our sake that things don't have to get a lot worse before people start realizing that we should do something to make them better.

When I tried to make my voice heard, I was met by water cannons, rubber bullets, tear gas and a ten foot FENCE, not to mention media coverage that made we want to cry and vomit simultaneously. People actually watched this stuff and believed that we were a group of violent,
arrogant, ignorant kids whose attention was momentarily captured by the passing fad of the anti-Globalization Movement. I saw the same clip of a group of people dressed all in black smashing the same car windows four times in the same hour. Not once did I see footage of the
peaceful demonstrations and marches we participated in some of which were a mile long and a boulevard wide.