March 19, 2006
Three years ago as the war started we attended a vigil in the park at 47th and Main in Kansas City. And marched on the Plaza. Two years ago I stood in the same place. One year ago I stood in the same place. Today I stood in the same place.
We left Warrensburg at 1:15 p.m. after picking up three students who wanted to attend the vigil. We arrived around 2:30 and parked in a garage at the west end of the Plaza, then walked to the park. As we approached we could see a sea of white sheets of paper floating on lines in the wind, some with photos, all with names, representing all of the casualties of this war, American and Iraqi. It took our breaths away.
We took up places on the picket line. I started out holding my "...one nation, under surveillance" sign. I distributed all of my signs to others, including "I see their `justice', I see their will of `god', I see their `mercy', it is a firing squad" to a young girl who was all too happy to hold it after an older woman rejected that one in favor of a Ghandi quote.
The media showed up - most of the Kansas City affiliates (NBC, ABC and Fox) sent out remote trucks and crews. As the ABC truck came by I held up my "Faux News Channel, fascist groupies" - the reporter and driver smiled, then laughed. A little while later the Fox remote truck headed west don the line on 47th street. People further up the line called out to me to pull up my sign. As luck would have it the Fox truck got stopped in traffic about ten feet from me. I held up my sign so that they could read it. Others on the picket line nearer to them waved their hands in front of the truck and pointed animatedly toward me and my sign. The reporter in the front seat smiled wanely, almost as if embarassed as those on the picket line laughed at them. The driver was made of sterner stuff - he allowed no expression to cross his face.
The response was overwhelming. Most passing drivers honked horns and gave us a thumbs up or peace signs. The line was so crowded, at times we were three deep on 47th street, that I spent more time watching and listening to the crowd then I did observing the reactions of passersby. Early on one individual yelled at our students, one who was holding my "Stop Mad Cowboy Disease" sign, from a passing car - "You're all a bunch of fucking idiots." I walked up to their place on the line to congratulate them on their first troglodyte.
A choir of about a dozen individuals took a spot behind us and serenaded the picket line with satirical lyrics about Halliburton, war profiteering and George W. Bush. They were quite good.
The organizers planned to read the names of the dead and then hold a prayer service. I spent almost all of my time on the picket line, so I didn't hear most of the speakers. The weather was overcast, windy and cold. I was thankful it didn't rain. I estimate the crowd to be close to a thousand. It was hard to tell.
A reporter from the NBC affiliate interviewed a pre-teen child while the cameraman filmed her. The reporter turned to me while I was holding my "Faux News Channel, fascist groupies" sign - I told her, "Use it to bust your competition's chops." She smiled while the camerman filmed me holding the sign.
At about 5:00 p.m. we left the vigil to eat dinner at an establishment on the Plaza. As we crossed Broadway, a lone dubya supporter with a "We support President Bush and our troops" sign was being interviewed by one of the television reporters. There were a few anti-war demonstrators around him. Any guesses about the "balanced" reporting which will take place on the late news?
After dinner we walked back to our car for the long drive home. As we passed the park we saw that it was now empty.
Tonight I received an e-mail from a friend who had participated in a march in California today:
From: XXXXX
To: XXXXX
Subject: A Marching We Will Go ...
Date: Sun, 19 Mar 2006 16:22:22 -0800
I've never made a secret of the fact that my political activism is strictly a recent phenomenon. In fact, most of what went on before George W. Bush became emperor is something of a blur in my head. The other day I was trying to remember the order of presidents elected since my birth in 1952 ... and I hate to tell you what a time of it I had.
Worse, I remember very little of the Viet Nam war, or of the protests back then. The war simply didn't impact my day to day life as a teenager or young adult. My brothers were too young to be drafted. My cousins all had college deferments. I didn't even have friends who were touched by it. In short, it pretty much went right over my head and left little lasting impression.
Maybe that's why the state of the anti-war movement in America these days has me so stumped. I really have nothing to compare it to in my memories. Maybe someone who actually participated in the Viet Nam war protests would have a better perspective on things. Perhaps they would recognize today's mood as some kind of natural "phase" in the anti-war effort. Me ... I honestly don't know what to think.
I've been googling around to catch news of the various marches and rallies being held to commemorate the 3rd anniversary of the invasion of Iraq ... and there's no doubt about it. Participation in these events has fallen off dramatically. Yesterday San Francisco managed to attract a mere 6,000 to 10,000 bodies (although nearby Walnut Creek managed a healthy 3,000, I hear). London saw 15,000 folks, down from 45,000 a year earlier. Sydney, Australia, got 500 people out ... a drop in the bucket compared to the demonstrations there in 2003.
Yesterday I marched in the city next door to Benicia, Vallejo. Yes, I am glad I went, if only to swell the body count a bit. But attendance was a 'trifle' anemic. Thank god for the Vallejo Intertribal Council, a Native American activist group, who rallied their forces to attend. We even had their medicine man walk along with us, burning sage and praying. And many of their members were high school aged. Regardless, there were only about 40 of us ... and, of course, the police kept us to the sidewalk the whole way. Once we got down to the ferry terminal there was a short rally attended by about 60 people. I will say that Congressman George Miller impressed me once again. He'd already committed to speaking at the Walnut Creek rally. But he sent his aide, Barbara Johnson, to our little group in Vallejo with a message written just for us. And the aide actually complimented the Benicia vigil and wanted us to know that the congressman HAD heard of it and applauded it....
But getting back to the anti-war movement ...
Why is it that enthusiasm for these events is petering out at the very time when disgust for George Bush has reached record levels??
Is it true perhaps that only a very small percentage of people are willing to publicly demonstrate for what they believe in? Yet, if that were the case, why did millions of them fill the streets before the war began?
Are people simply burnt out and numb at how bad the situation in Iraq has gotten?
Or is it a matter, as one fellow suggested to me yesterday, that people are so flat out busy trying to stay afloat financially that there's no time left over for things like demonstrating?
Perhaps the peace movement at the moment is merely seen as ineffective, having failed to stop the Iraq fiasco. Or maybe people have stopped having hope that anything can change anymore ... that the Dems will ever become an effective opposition party ... that George Bush will ever pay for his crimes.
Or is it that we've just reached a low point in a natural cycle of things, a cycle that occurs in any time of upheaval and instability?
Sometimes I get the very strange impression that even people who hate George Bush look at us in the peace movement as if we've got a third eye in the middle of our foreheads. Like we're 'eccentrics' ... 'aging hippies' ... not 'cool'.
Something rather strange and unpleasant happened yesterday on the march. For the most part, we walked along the main drag through Vallejo, Sonoma Boulevard. But at one point at the very end, we had to turn right and march down Georgia Street to cut over 4 blocks to the ferry terminal. For years now, Georgia Street has been closed to vehicles on Saturdays for a popular farmer's market, although at this time of year there are more handmade jewelry vendors than sellers of vegetables there. Me, I'd forgotten all about it. I rounded the corner ... and suddenly there was a mass of shoppers out in the street who were taken pretty much by surprise by our group of anti-war protesters chanting "Peace is Patriotic!" Sure took me by surprise. The reaction was so strange. Very suspicious. Even supporters were low key and almost furtive with their thumbs up. Most had that glazed zombie expression I've come to know so well. To say it was tense would be an understatement. The march leaders walked right down the center of Georgia through the crowd. I could actually feel the tension physically lift when the group cleared that area.
No, I'm not going to hang up my vigil signs over a little thing like that. I'm just trying, like all of us, to understand what is happening to this country. Polls clearly indicate growing disenchantment with the way things are going. There is no doubt about that. But on the streets of America, you'd never know it. People continue to live, or try to live, their lives just like they've always done. They complain in private among like-minded friends, but do nothing in public. There is no outrage. Just the simmering discontent that boils over from time to time in a quick thumbs up and horn honk for a peace group.
Is this what things were like in the Viet Nam era? I'd really like to know ...
XXXXX
We talked during the drive home. For our students who participated in this their first protest event the experience was an eye opener. They commented on the general lack of diversity in the crowd. For the most part those who attended were middle aged and older. Our students were amazed at the number of "older" people who approached to thank them for attending.
posted at the moon's favors