Dear Dirty America

L.A. Times report:

Guy Fawkes was an English mercenary and failed plotter whose death was elevated into a national celebration complete with bonfires and the burning of effigies. Four centuries later — thanks to Hollywood, not to mention a deep undertow of popular discontent — his grinning, mustachioed face has become the symbol of resistance for almost any political movement.

That, of course, includes the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations across the United States.

From New York to Seattle, protesters have donned the stylized masks of Fawkes — a person seen by many as a 17th century terrorist.