Blind eyes don’t make things go away

Sometimes I feel like I take a blind eye to things that I should take a deep breath and actually look at. I have always been one to not watch the news in avoidance of seeing something evil. With this type of mindset, I also find that I miss out on important things that happened in history. I had no idea that the date September 11th, 1973 was the day that Pinochet was over turned.

September 11, 2008 marks the thirty-fifth anniversary of the military coup led by General Augusto Pinochet. The violent overthrow of the democratically-elected Popular Unity government of Salvador Allende changed the course of the country that Chilean poet Pablo Neruda described as "a long petal of sea, wine and snow"; because of CIA covert intervention in Chile, and the repressive character of General Pinochet's rule, the coup became the most notorious military takeover in the annals of Latin American history.

Revelations that President Richard Nixon had ordered the CIA to "make the economy scream" in Chile to "prevent Allende from coming to power or to unseat him," prompted a major scandal in the mid-1970s, and a major investigation by the U.S. Senate. Since the coup, however, few U.S. documents relating to Chile have been actually declassified- -until recently. Through Freedom of Information Act requests, and other avenues of declassification, the National Security Archive has been able to compile a collection of declassified records that shed light on events in Chile between 1970 and 1976.

I guess that tonight is a common night for protest in Chile. Let me assure you that we are safe and snug in our homes and we live in an area where there is a lot of security. Actually Pete and I were not aware that this was a restless night until Pete went to work this morning and found out that the school closed at 5:00 p.m. and the buses and subways stopped running at 6:00 p.m.. Tonight is meant to be a night off the streets as there are those that choose to take this opportunity to go out and protest. Normally protests in Chile are legal as long as they are safe and non violent. I can only image in the evening on the anniversary of such a violent night there will be some mischief taking place and I am sure that the police will be out in full force.