Fact-esque: Not One More

So I went to the March Against BushCo's War in Iraq on Saturday. It was angry, joyous, peaceful, thrilling, spiritual and inspiring. I'm still tired from the drive and the day so I can't put together the post that will perfectly capture all my emotions and thoughts on the subject. Look at my photo album and read the captions to get something close. But I want to make this one point: I was privileged to be part of the march. Privileged to have a mom who could come from CT to watch my kids for me. Privilged economically to be able to afford to make the trip. Privileged geographically to be able to get there. I was especially privileged to be able to meet up and march with Riggsveda, PA for Democracy, Thomas and Alt Hippo, who were the smartest, funniest and most considerate people there that day. And that's saying a lot because the half a million people I saw were all united in a peaceful and loving spirit of cooperation and determination to end this war. I didn't hear a cross word in eight hours.

Related: To everyone who talked down the march before the big day and fretted that the anti-war message would appear ridiculous and diluted to middle America because of pierced freaks and hippies and people who are concerned about Haiti and Palestine and people who think street theater is an effective way to make a point: It wouldn't be possible for you to have been more wrong.

This march and, in fact, this movement, which, let's remember, has put together massive anti-war mobilizations every year since BushCo's War in Iraq started, (two in 2004) have a strength of purpose that outweighs anything I've seen in this country since the reaction to the attacks of 9/11. And we remember how that sense of national purpose was ruthlessly and cynically crushed by the GOP in 2002. The spirit of this movement outweighs anything the timid, corporate Democrats have put together in decades. We gave voice to the millions of Peace Pragmatists out there who did not march but who realize, maybe for the first time - maybe all along, that you don't put out fires with gasoline and that the vow "Not One More" should replace the Pledge of Allegiance and the Star Spangled Banner until this illegal, immoral and unwise war is over.

As for organization, tents for the dreaded special interests were set up near Washington Monument, just off the march route. If you wanted to get literature about Palestine, you went, I swear to god, to the Palestine Tent. If you wanted to learn about A.N.S.W.E.R, you went to their tent. If you were more into the whole United for Peace and Justice thing, you went to theirs. Labor Against War - had a tent. NOW - had a tent. Opposition to the use of depleted uranium - the use of which should have us all in the streets every damn day and night - had a table. You could walk by it or dilute your personal experience by reading about the nuclear horrors that are being perpetrated in our names daily; the choice was yours. It was a day of cooperation and diversity and awesome organization. It was the best of America.

Speaking of useless Democrats and diluted messages, kudos to any national Dems who showed up. So far I've only heard that Rep. Lynn Woolsey had the courage to address the crowd.

Related: I'm not a Coincidence Theorist so I don't believe for one minute that it was an accident that something fell across an Amtrak powerline, stopping service to D.C. On the bright side - there's always a bright side when you're dealing with Peace Pragmatists - this happened:

Judith Levine, one of the group's organizers, said that when it became clear that they might not reach Washington until after sundown, Take Back the Future decided to seize the present.

"We would rather stay together," said Ms. Levine, an author. "We've got lemons. Let's make lemonade."

So instead of a march past the White House with thousands of other activists, the protesters and their placards ended up at 34th Street and Seventh Avenue, in a 50-foot-by-6-foot space that the police had marked off with barricades.

They walked in a circle, denouncing the war, but some seemed to have amended their grievances to include train travel. A group of young women known as the radical cheerleaders, dressed in pleated short skirts, with pompoms made of plastic trash bags, shouted: "Let's get on the right track. Get the troops out of Iraq." Another chant went "Money for trains, not war."

Good for them. Start the revolution where you are.

Best coverage: In addition to the bloggers I already linked, the best coverage of the march is here:

Truthout - with video.
Village Voice
After Downing Street - lots of links to other good coverage
Photos of Signs at the protest

UPDATE: Richard is reporting that Rep. Maxine Waters had the courage to address the march. He's also reporting that her facts on Haiti were confused, which is upsetting.

UPDATE: Agitprop has much needed coverage of the LA march.

Zinn

"[O]ur time, our energy, should be spent in educating, agitating, organizing our fellow citizens in the workplace, in the neighborhood, in the schools. Our objective should be to build, painstakingly, patiently but energetically, a movement that, when it reaches a certain critical mass, would shake whoever is in the White House, in Congress, into changing national policy on matters of war and social justice."

The Reverend Al Sharpton

Ray wasn't singing about what he knew, 'cause Ray had been blind since he was a child. He hadn't seen many purple mountains. He hadn't seen many fruited plains. He was singing about what he believed to be.

Mr. President, we love America, not because of all of us have seen the beauty all the time.

But we believed if we kept on working, if we kept on marching, if we kept on voting, if we kept on believing, we would make America beautiful for everybody.

Marx

''With adequate profit, capital is very bold. A certain 10 percent will ensure its employment anywhere; 20 percent will produce eagerness, 50 percent positive audacity; 100 percent will make it ready to trample on all human laws; 300 percent, and there is not a crime which it will not scruple, nor a risk it will not run, even to the chance of its owner being hanged.''

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Comments

I've been surprised by the large number of diaries and articles on the march this time. I don't know if the size of the march in Washington was that big but the size of it's blog presence, is much greater, I think, than previous marches. How odd, but welcome.

I think this will be good practise for next week's flu awareness week. The march almost became a colaborative effort, before and after. There's even something collective about the dumb asses who are now busy slagging off ANSWER and also those who are wandering if marches achieve anything.

I marching mostly does effect those who march these days, which is why you rightly say it's a privilege. It's too expensive for me to go to DC. OTOH I don't need to be told about Haiti and I can donate funds enough to help get others there.

Maybe the blogosphere needs to think about these things though because for all the community aspects of some parts of the blogosphere there's nothing like meeting up with people to encourage collaboration.

I've been quite depressed at just how insistent the know-nothing anti-ANSWER crowd has been this time though. It reinforces just how much education work remains to be done. The blogosphere seems less a group of people willing to work towards a common goal than a lot of children.

Posted by: DavidByron | September 26, 2005 at 10:04 AM

I think the various skeptics and naysayers have never had a clear idea of what it means to have a demonstration or be in one. It doesn't mean 'relentlessly on message', it doesn't mean 'focus group tested', it doesn't mean 'me and 300,000 other people agree on every element of a 13 point plan.'

The chant 'this is what democracy looks like' was pretty appropriate: a little disorganized, a little combative, and even a little wacky sometimes, but also more committed, informative, and inspiring than top-down media or political campaigns. It's a place and time to register your decision to join others at that place and time. I think it's not so much an effort to persuade onlookers as it is a chance to show them and yourself how many of you there are, and how spirited you are about it.

Posted by: Thomas Nephew | September 26, 2005 at 01:10 PM

Thomas wrote: It doesn't mean 'relentlessly on message', it doesn't mean 'focus group tested', it doesn't mean 'me and 300,000 other people agree on every element of a 13 point plan.'

Here, here.

David: Flu week will be important. It's a good chance to wake up the corporate media. But there's so much money is managing the panic that you can be they'll stay off the story.

Posted by: eRobin | September 26, 2005 at 05:21 PM

eRobin,

I'm so glad you experienced this. Sometimes, it's all about showing up and sharing the experience. My life was fundamentally altered by the Vietnam teach-ins and the March on Washington. Unfortunately, I was too wasted to go to ths Stones concert in 1972 in DC when the revolution was supposed to start. If I had shown up, our history might have been different.

Posted by: Aeolus | September 26, 2005 at 09:24 PM

Hey Aeolus :) The Stones are on tour again - you may have a second chance.

Posted by: eRobin | September 26, 2005 at 09:41 PM

Thanks for this post, eRobin.

Posted by: Chris Clarke | September 26, 2005 at 11:54 PM

it was pandemonium with ~300,000 out there! indeedy, too bad we didn't get a chance to march together in DC, but hey, we got Philly! wonderful shot of Camp Casey, i didn't make it to that section of the mall.

Posted by: albert | September 27, 2005 at 12:07 AM

Hi,

I envy you; it must have been an uplifting experience, one of those times when enough people are untied in the same cause and you feel you really can change the world. If I lived in the US I would have tried very, very hard to get there.

I was on the London march against the Iraq War 3 years ago; it was one of the biggest peaceful demos in British history, and as a seasoned political campagner (show me a liberal banner and I'll wave it)it really felt like a wide range of every class and race in the community were united in demanding peace. It didn't seem possible that our so-called elected representatives could ignore us.

And the rest is history. I really hope that your weekend of demonstrations make more of a difference than ours; the political climate in the US is ripe for change at the moment, I feel, don't you? Sindy Sheehan is headlinging the news even in the UK, more power to her elbow, and there's a constant undercurrent that Bush and his pals are clinging on by the skin of their political teeth. Let's hope, eh?

holojojo

Posted by: holojojo | September 27, 2005 at 07:41 AM

Tried to trackback to your story but Haloscan is fuxed. So here.

Got pix to send to you, too. It was a wonderful time.

Posted by: Riggsveda | September 27, 2005 at 08:56 PM

Good on you for going to DC on 24 September and for providing links in this post, Robin! And shame on James Wolcott for his piece on the march and on atrios/Duncan for his complete silence on this event!
Keep up the good fight!

Posted by: Helga Fremlin | September 27, 2005 at 09:00 PM

"My life was fundamentally altered by the Vietnam teach-ins and the March on Washington. Unfortunately, I was too wasted to go to ths Stones concert in 1972 in DC when the revolution was supposed to start."

Stuck in the 60s.

Oh, and by the way, the revolution did start: re-education camps in Vietnam, two million dead people in Cambodia, untold misery for millions more.

"... I was too wasted..."

Well that may explain why you fail to remember.

Posted by: Bagley | September 27, 2005 at 10:00 PM

Posted by: insurance | March 10, 2006 at 10:24 PM

Posted by: chevrolet | April 15, 2006 at 12:22 AM

Fact-esque

It's been widely reported and that makes it fact-esque. - Stephen Colbert

Not One More

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