A demonstration just wandered by, a group of Ethiopians protesting the recent violence in Addis Abbaba. It was one of the most poorly organized demos I’ve seen in a while — the couple hundred protestors clotted up at 14th and NY while a zillion DC police, Capitol police, Park police and Secret Service (is there any city in the world with more overlapping layers of law enforcement?) watched them try and figure out whether they were going to blockade the intersection -OR- wander over to the White House. They tried doing both for a while.
In addition to waving American and Ethiopian flags (some bearing the long-defunct imperial lion), some also carried signs and banners: “Democracy in Ethiopia Now!” and “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere!” What exactly they were asking Caesar Potus (who isn’t in town today anyway) and his urukai to do is beyond me (air strikes? invasion? assassination?) but they were asking the US to “do something.” Ethiopians are struggling mightily against a president and a ruling party that does not want to give up power or position, and is willing to kill, imprison and torture. I suspect eventually they will succeed; no bad government is ever permanent, no matter what the rulers think.
Maybe they ought to wander on over to 1150 Seventeenth Street, N.W., and lobby them to “do something.” They’re the folks who really make executive branch policy anyway. They don’t care much about Ethiopia, but feed Richard Perle a good dinner or two (and bathe him while you’re at it), pay him a handsome retainer fee and you might spark his interest…
3:55 pm on November 15, 2005
