Liza, I hope you don't leave the list.  We've certainly had our little
tiffs, you and I, but I think you're one of the most consistently
interesting voices here.  The list would be diminished by your absence.

> WHY do raw food types, organic simple-lifestyle, shun-materialism,
> types, those who would have been in demonstrations to protest against
> the WTO and globalization and now are in demonstrations to protest
> military action, African-American-blacks in dreadlocks and those
> colorful crocheted caps, and whites with natural hemp clothing flat
> shoes and no make-up, lesbian-feminists, good union activists, lefty
> poets and artists, and RAW FOODISTS  -   why is it that these people
> want to band together in the streets to say "We protest the military
> actions against Bin Ladens and those who shelter bin Laden?"

Here in my California town, I've watched just what you describe.  Even
before we all knew the name Osama bin Laden, there was a clear alliance --
even a blending, in some ways -- of the Rastas (most of whom are not serious
Rastafarians but hippy-ish types known locally as ragamuffins) and the
vegans.  Because the majority of raw foodists are vegan raw foodists (in my
experience) and because the majority of vegans are in it for the ethics and
not the health angle (in my experience) it's understandable to me that the
vegan camp and the raw folks would find a lot of common ground.

Serious Rastafarians only eat "I-tal" food, which is completely natural,
vegetarian, and often mostly raw.  Our local ragamuffins (mostly white
teenagers) often know little about true Rastafarianism, but they like the
dreadlocks and they've heard that it's vegetarian, so they think it's cool.
While true Rastafarians are not really into non-violence, the ragamuffins
often blend the idea of I-tal food with the beliefs of the compassion vegans
into a non-violent pseudo-Rasta all their own.  The vegans, the raw
foodists, and the ragamuffins seem united in their belief that an ethic of
compassion is indivisible from one of non-violence.

The lesbian feminists and union activist types seem to be coming at it from
a different angle.  Their big bugaboo is oppression, and they are most
concerned about the refugees and collateral damage victims.  I don't see
them hanging out with the previous group at all in peacetime, but they'll
tolerate them, it seems, if it means that their protest march has more
people in it.

The simplicity folks, in my experience, are of two very different types.
There are the ones who are spiritual about it, and there are the ones who
are into it because they want to be as independent and off-the-grid as
possible.  The first group is often non-violent because it's part of their
spirituality.  The second group probably hates bin Ladin as much as anybody,
but they often see our government as almost as bad.  These latter types are
the last folks you'd see in a protest.  They just want to be left alone.

These are all just my impressions.

C