About All Those Demonstrations That You Might Have Been Hearing About...

Dear All,

I have been contacted by several people who were concerned by some of the coverage of yesterday's events in Athens. I would like, first of all, to say that I am fine, all my friends are fine, everyone I know is fine, my apartment is fine, the city of Athens is generally fine, etc. Let me stress. Everyone is fine.

What you heard about (blown, from what I can understand, way out of proportion) was the typical demonstration that takes place in Greece every November 17th. 35 years ago, many students at the Athens Polytechnic University locked themselves up on their campus, made their own radio station, and were protesting the military junta that was in control of Greece at the time. This did not go over well with the fascist government, and on November 17th, after several days of tension, the army broke down the gates with their tanks. About 50 students died. Many more were injured, arrested, and tortured. It was generally quite bad.

The demonstration that happened yesterday occurs every year in memory of the heroic acts of the students. It started in 1975 as a peaceful demonstration, but over the years has become considerably more violent than it used to be. It starts at the Polytechnic university in Exarhia and goes down Vas. Sophias (yes, that is the street that I cross to get to school) and ends in front of the American embassy. (All protests end in front of the American Embassy. This is a general rule of demonstrations.) It usually starts off pretty well, but by 4 or 5 pm someone usually starts throwing molotov cocktails, blowing up trashcans, etc. The police sometimes break out tear gas. It gets unpleasant.

Because this event involves some anti-American sentiment (the United States, alarmingly, was actually involved in getting the junta in place) we were warned to try to stay away from the protest, or, if we chose to go, go early in the morning and not identify ourselves as Americans. I didn't go- I did see some of it on my way to and from the apartment, but didn't stay and watch- but I have friends who did, and from what I can understand it was actually pretty tame this year. I repeat, no one was hurt. We're all ok. Mostly, it was just another chance to learn about modern Greek history, a subject that most of us know appallingly little about.

So, to repeat, we're all ok. Greeks, while they may not always love America, are lovely people who generally like Americans. Thank you for your concern.