Peace March January 2007
Today I was back on the streets, as part of United for Peace & Justice's big anti-war march in Washington DC.
It was exhilarating and wonderful to be there-- though I never did find the four buses'-worth of folks who came up from Charlottesville today and were supposed to be marching together somewhere. I came to DC on Thursday to do some work in the city. Today I rode in to the march on the Metro (subway) with my friend Corky Bryant. On the Metro there was a great sense of anticipation-- just like in the big antiwar march in New York in February 2003, when I rode into Manhattan with my daughter and son-in-law on the subway, and at every stop more people in marching gear would get on with their placards and a mounting air of excitement.
This time the rally didn't seem to be as well organized. It was kind of hard to figure what was going on at times, and they didn't have any big screens, just a fairly poor sound system.
Still, the weather was good and the spirit was excellent. There were many very creative placards-- including a good number that drew a direct line between the waging of war abroad and the deterioration of basic good governance and civil liberties here at home.
There didn't seem to be any unification of slogans or approaches. There were church groups, revolutionary socialists, labor unions (especially the great SEIU), many locality-based peace and justice groups from all over the country, and quite an impressive contingent from "Iraq Veterans Aagainst the War." Toward the end of the march, I found myself next to this last group: about 40 or so mainly young-ish men, most wearing blue jeans and their combat-camo jackets. Marching right there with them were an older generation of guys from Vietnam Veterans Against the War-- and a small contingent of passionately articulate men from the "Appeal for Redress", which is the anti-Iraq-War organization of serving military people.
They are all so brave.
In addition, I saw quite a number of protesters wearing T-shirts or signs that identified them as family members of service-members killed in Iraq. And many signs and banners referred to the horrendous casualty toll among Iraqis so far.
It remains to be seen what effect this march will have. The big media all seem to be trying to downplay it-- including by saying, over and over again, that only "tens of thousands" took part. It was hard to get a single unified look at the crowd but by my estimate more than 200,000 people were there... And surely people in those news helicopters and police helicopters circling overhead could get a better estimate than me?
Anyway, the organizing work will go on. On Monday, UFPJ is organizing some in-office lobbying visits with members of Congress. I won't be here for those-- I need to get back home and make some final arrangements before I leave the country Wednesday.
I'm really tired. Corky took some photos and I'll see if I can get them up here tomorrow...
I caught a similar "spin" by CNN. Around noon, their reporter was still talking of only a few thousand earlier - and tens of thousands later. (even as they had a camera picture on an "open mall") The anchor was yammering about how few Congresspeople were there (other than Dennis - the menace!) Meanwhile, Hillary got media coverage for her escapte to Iowa.
CNN also took emphasis off of the main rally with a focus on a "Code Pink" demonstration -- which apparently featured Jane Fonda (et.al.) Oh great. That in turn inspired footage on a few dozen pro-war demonstrators with a ugly banner about death to the traitors (etc.)
But I did listen to many of the main rally speeches on CSPAN. Some great (like Wattada's Dad and the Iraq vets); many likely to have little to no resonance outside radical/labor/NOW circles..... Ah well,
My favorite sighted poster said simply:
"DEPLOY BUSH"
Bush says he hasn't seen any alternative plans. Well, that sounds like a splendid plan to me.
This morning the media around here were saying "thousands" were marching in DC - not even tens of thousands! I joined our local march in progress, and walked to the end. It looked like at least ten thousand or so, which is not bad considering that a lot of people had gone to DC. This one also did not seem terribly well organized compared to some of the earlier ones.
Agree that the most impressive were Robert Watada's speech and the approach of the young men from the Armed Forces. I watched c-SPAN, as what can be expected from CNN and FOX except slants to the far right?
Bob Winder
Look, I don't know how we can 'win' in regard to the press treatment. If we're too organized, then it's 'staged'. If we're not organized, then we're without a 'plan'. So let's just be glad so many people turned out and so many different people turned out. We were there and we witnessed it. It was heartening.
I really enjoyed the FreeRepublic demo, in their little cage. Did you see the Hippies Smell poster one of the guys was holding? An appropriate type of nursery taunt to be holding up inside their playpen.
My vote for absolutely best poster goes to the woman carrying the sign that said Will Give B---J-- For Impeachment.
Will give B...J.... for Impeachment.
Now that's funny. I've seen a lot of coverage but missed that one.
Hi. Just found this place via Angry Arab. Will be back soon and often.