What's my f-ing problem? I'll tell you what my f-ing problem is: I'm stoopid tired after a day of exercising my First Amendment rights in our nation's capital.
But it could have been worse: ElizabethD sat on a bus from Wisconsin from 4pm Friday to 8am Saturday to attend the rally. At 8pm, she (hopefully) got on another one for her round trip.
Sure, the rally could have been better planned--we stood around for 45 minutes before things began to move. But we were with a laundry list of Kossacks. I didn't get to meet Booman, which makes me sad, but Maryscott was there, and a ton of other people.
And considering that 1900 people only "showed up" in the form of flag-draped coffins, I'm not complaining.
More.
Like I said, things were poorly planned--no organizers along the march route, no one to direct traffic, meatheads who insisted on pausing in front of an empty White House, thoroughly bollixing up the people behind. And the cops were no help.
But we saw Huskies for Peace and Grandmothers for Peace and Quakers for Peace, and more hippies than you could shake a stick at. The socialists and anarchists were irritating, but that's nothing new. And there were umpteen Young Activists tagging along in Mom's stroller.
So one of my f-ing problems is that I don't have a Young Activist to drag along to such things, like my parents dragged me.
But as tired as I am, and as sore as my feet are, I'm glad we went. You can't beat Kosmonkeys for company, and no matter how irritating parts of the march were, there's no denying how exciting it is to see hundreds of thousands of people essentially giving the White House a collective finger. Can't beat that.
Still, I do have one serious problem. As we were leaving the march, we passed a homeless woman, black and passing out of middle age. She stood in the street as the protestors strode past, saying to them, "We're already here. And what are you doing about it?"
I don't have an answer to that question. And that's an f-ing problem.
Update [2005-9-24 21:32:0 by pastordan]: Pictures and a full list of the Kossacks we found at the rally here. And yes, yes I am trying to drive up traffic.