At 11 a.m., violence broke out. 
 
As the police approached, I felt my stomach tighten, my body started to shake with fear. With no warning, police attacked peaceful protesters. I escaped with a few bruises and a twisted arm- others were not as fortunate. One student got his nose busted open by a billy club and another had her teeth kicked out after being thrown to the ground. Tears and emotions make our vision bleary, they make it hard to be rational. We were there to protest the injustice of the IMF and World Bank, not to fight police. 

We went to D.C. to demonstrate, to place social issues and ills into perspective and to rise up against injustice. The quick confrontation left my heart hurting more than any physical injury ever could. I think I will struggle for a long time trying to make sense out of the inhumanity exhibited by the police. But, the abuse we experienced in no way compares to the constant assault launched by the IMF and World Bank on developing countries. Surely the conversations flying around campus will be more focused on the police attack on students and less on the pertinent issues at hand-the atrocities that developing countries endure at the mercy of the new global order. 

We have to REFOCUS-use the attack of the police, realizing the need to heal our corrupt system. The police, in this instance, and the IMF both function as oppressors. They keep the people down, catering to the elite. The hierarchy necessarily creates inequality and gives power to the rich. Neither the power nor the money trickles down and the press lies to us. Instead of hating the system, we must try to become it. We must talk to people in their own language and resignify classical social definitions.

The revolution brewing is not about money, it is about humanity. Activism is life support. It is our way of questioning the dominant view, attempting to reform public opinion. In
Washington, people showed that they were willing to put their bodies on the line to fight oppression. Through proactive action, activists can bring to light the ills of our society. The revolution is about people, not profits, justice, not exploitation. 

The policies of the IMF and World Bank increase the division between rich and poor. With divisions come tensions, alienation, and dejection. We must feed the 20,000-35,000 children who die from hunger every day. 

We have to tell corporations to fuck off.

These corporations are the driving force behind the IMF and World Bank policies. Capitalism corrupts and destroys. Success in our system is quantitative not qualitative. The IMF and World Bank are willing to give debt relief to countries only if they comply to the structural adjustments which allow American corporations to take over. Rich become richer; the poor get poorer. Monoculture rules. Corporations and the Internet devour our humanity. The environment is dying and so are people. Our system is sick.

Eventually the whole system will have to be uprooted. Disaster will show people the need for reform. Until then, we must stay strong. The revolution will happen. After the attack of the police officers, we danced in the street in celebration. Social violence extends beyond the physical and protesters aimed to replace that violence with peace. We celebrated our enduring strength and resolve, we showed that peace can overcome oppression. We achieved our goal, attracting attention to the transnational elite alliance which tries to consume our souls. But in the end, our souls will consume them.