I don't mask, and never really thought about masking, but now that I am thinking about it, I guess I choose to show up in my naked face because I want to look nonthreatening, middle-class and ordinary. My reasoning is that less politically committed onlookers won't be as alienated if I look nonthreatening.... maybe they will even join in.

Aren't anarchists people who barter rather than buy, and who knock on their neighbors' doors and solve problems through dialogue, rather than calling the building manager or the police? Aren't they people who read Adbusters, and spend hours coming to a consensus with their housemates about whether or not it is acceptable to keep nonfertilized eggs in the refrigerator? Or am I missing something? Are they making bombs in their basements with ingredients bartered from neighbors, or at least purchased in locally owned businesses?

I always wear black at political actions because I heard it makes you look thinner.

When I see someone wearing black and masked at a rally, I assume they are romanticizing their participation a bit... And I'm always irritated by people who are more committed to their self-expression than to furthering the aims of the rally. For instance, at a recent pro-life counter-protest, I was really irritated by a woman who was yelling stuff like "I fucked Jesus and aborted his baby!" A little bit of that can be amusing, I guess, but I'm afraid it may alienate people who might support our cause if we stuck to shouting things like "Safe! Legal!" For me, keeping abortion legal when my daughter is in her reproductive years is a lot more important than shocking those annoying sanctimonious Christians right now. It may be less exciting, but isn't it more important to build solidarity with the community than to act out one's rebel/bandito fantasies?

I hope I'm not offending anyone. And maybe I'm just naive. Maybe there really are cointel agents in dreadlocks taking photos every Mayday...

Masking may have something to do with paranoia, the desire to intimidate, or unresolved teenage angst, etc. or any combination of these.

Let us not fear death, but embrace the future with a vision of hope.

Masking is an act of self protection. Not all of us are middle class people who get to choose where we work. Some of us have bosses who retaliate against us if they see us (or our picture of us) doing anticapitalist political work. Some of us don't like being profiled by the Nazis when they come to town. Some of us have warrants out for our arrest because of some private security camera catching an image of our mural making. There are as many reasons to mask up as there are masks and faces.

If you're someone who feels comfortable barefaced at a protest, you're probably satisfied to make symbolic acts, rather than direct action to make change. If you're planning to un-arrest your friends when they get grabbed by the police, you will want your face to be masked. If you're planning to plant a garden in private property, you might want to be masked. If you're planning to improve a billboard with a little spraypaint, you will definitely want a respirator, and that will hide your face somewhat.

When the agents of authority can see you at all times, we call this a panopticon. Pan means "many" and Opticon means "see." The panopticon is another word for the national security surveillance state, the society which tags and locates its citizens in a manner similar to a herd of cattle. When you mask up, you're deliberately breaking that "seeing" part of the panopticon. If they can't identify you, then the consequences are so much less.

This is, of course, what worries many. You might get out of line if the consequences were removed. Freedom can be scary, it can take a tremendous amount of responsibility to use it wisely. Not everyone trusts you to use it wisely, especially if they don't know who you are.

This is also why I photograph police at a demonstration before the action starts, so that when the clubs fly and the pepper spray hangs in the air, my documentation can lead me to the right agency or house to deliver the legal process which will signal responsibility for what those masked men were doing.

When I turn my camera toward the authorities, their complaints are familiar; they say the exact same things that you do when authority films you at a protest. They ask if I mean them harm. I usually do not wear a mask or hide my face for that reason - it puts them more at ease if they know what I am doing.

But my face will be masked when we confront the Nazis in July. Not so that I can commit a crime, but so those who might need to mask up will look like normal participants. We should all mask up, frankly. I'm advocating it openly as an act of solidarity with those minorities who would otherwise have to face the violence threatened by the Nazis alone. I'll stand in solidarity with those who mask, if anyone masks. I ask you to consider doing the same.