Part 1 of 3

What's goin on, just got back from the 9/11 Truth "Emergency" conference in Philly. It was a good time overall, with several shining moments in between. Here are some thoughts/observations:

On Philly:
-What better place to celebrate the Declaration of Independence? I love this city for many reasons, and now for a few more. I was amazed at the seemingly daylong protests in front of Independence Hall from a variety of different activist groups. Props to the Coalition to Free Mumia Abu Jamal, the Black Panthers, Free Tibet, and the 9/11 Truther/Ron Paul supporters who were laying it down.

- Cops, cops, cops... everywhere. Okay, okay, yeah it was probably just because of the thousands of people roaming the streets for the Indepence Day festivities, but it was a tad excessive. It should be obvious to everyone that they are trying to build a prison, in the words of System of a Down with all the cops, security, marshalls, and homeland security agents visible from all angles. And I thought Albany was bad.. anyone from Philly wanna comment on the police presence during a normal day?

- Cheesesteaks: :P i recommend the ones from the street vendor.

On the Conference:
- A solid conference with some great speakers, including Dr. Bob Bowman (don't understand why the crowd turned on him. probably just the hippies), Kevin Smith, and Webster Tarpley (can sorta guess why the crowd turned on him, but some of it was uncalled for) . It was nice to see a little bit of unity with the local peace groups, but there's still a lot of room for improvement on that front. The speeches from the two 9/11 family members were extremely powerful and reminded us all why we were there.

- For an "emergency conference," i feel we were really just treated to more of the same. As mentioned there were some great speakers, but I had seen all of these people give similar speeches in the past few months. The conference failed deliver on its promise to give us a chance to communicate, coordinate, and share strategies with one another. There was a lot of "preaching to the choir," which was partially necessary for the peace groups in attendance, but there was no need for it later on when the group started to break up...

- ...The format could've used some tweaking. I mean, come on, how appealing does a 7 hour lecture sound on July 4? It was nice to hear from the delegates from the different activist groups, but the speeches should've been kept to the first few hours, with the second half actually being devoted toward the strategy session. And where was the ACTION? Sure, we didn't let the lack of an action plan stop us (see next bullet), but really now... it's time to stop bitching and start a revolution!

- Shining moment of the day: some street action with Luke and the guys/gals from wearechange.org. Essentially, the younger crowd got tired of the hours and hours of lectures (without a formal break!! ahhh!), so we decided to get out and make some waves. I do feel bad for the poor NBC reporter whose live shot we totally ruined. She was hott! But, she is lying corporate news reporter so she had it coming. It was really cool to have members of the major 9/11 youth groups (we are change nyc, philly, student scholars, and albany of course) working together and tearing shit up. Be on the lookout for all the photos and video magic on the way.

On the shitty weather and lack of fireworks:
- Shit happens, but all in all, a good time.

stay tuned for part II and III, through the eyes of my comrades.

Mike Metzger
9/11 Truth Albany