It is healthy to be willing to protect yourself to stay alive. Our presence represented a growing healthiness of the movements to end corporate dominance. The blac bloc is no different from the rest of the protest movement in the same way that my liver is no different from me. My liver is a part of me and having one makes me healthy. Just so, the protest movement isnt any different from the general public.
Rich people can romanticize war, reach out and touch the danger, feel the thrill, and tell the tale.
The rest of us get killed or maimed. Immunology offers a better metaphor, because the democratic wellbeing of this nation has become diseased. Corporations are a cancer that will kill us if we let them. The blac bloc is just one tiny element of the growing movements dedicated to bringing health and strength to the body of the nation and healing to the community of peoples throughout the world. We'll do our bit to eliminate the cancer.