I wound up with a limited 'view' as I was assigned to the backstage / staging area the whole time but that also meant that I got to watch every single marcher go by.
I was a "marshall" -- one of those folks with little orange vests that alternate between smiling and yelling in the blink of an eye. We are there to keep the march moving, safe, and uneventful (from the negative perspective) as much as possible. Some of us created the front line and set the pace, some of us were stationed along the march to be sure everything was going well and that the measly number of hecklers didn't disrupt the flow and safety of the marchers, some acted as the back line, and then there were those of us who stayed right where we started. I was in the latter group. Back-stage to be exact, trying to maintain a marginal amount of order in a tiny area first in front of the huge crowd and finally behind it when the last marchers passed by.
I saw quite a few on-line folks there -- or let me say I recognized a few I've met at other DC events. Saw RenaRF and her 50+ group of bloggers, tried to help some of our press-credentialed folks get slightly better spots (got called on that but I tried). And was in the middle of 3rd St when the marchers waiting for the front contingent to get going finally ran out of patience and 'surged' forward [talk about an adrenaline rush--trying facing down a few thousand folks then realizing all your compatriots have disappeared off to the sidelines]. So much for crowd control. :^)
So once the bulk of the "celebrities" had moved on out of the backstage area, I had time to watch and what a show it was:
From the Ragin' Grannies to the Iraqi Vets, from CodePink to the Gold Star Families, from college students to high schoolers from Maine to young families with babies in strollers.
From black-clad anarchists (who got caught within the massive body of the march for a long long while, stuck in the middle of middle America without a cop to hassle in sight) to Grim Reapers to white peace drummers to a sea of people of all colors and ages in jackets and t-shirts in every color of the rainbow.
I watched as the marchers pushed forward eager to start yet held back by their sheer numbers. I watched marchers dance and sing, chant and drum, smile and raise angry fists.
I watched the famous and the common standing together against the lies and broken word of an Administration that seemed deaf to the cries of parents burying sons and daughters, families learning to walk again with missing limbs.
I watched as the marchers overwhelmed the route assigned by the Capitol Police, blocking any possibility of making a u-turn on a narrow street in front of the Supreme Court.
I watched as we heard over the radios that 'negotiations' were under way to allow the march to continue down First St behind the Capitol and come down Independence. And, with shivers down my back and a huge smile on my face, I watched as I saw the front line of marshalls appear off in the distance on the way down the street from the House side of the Capitol (the march went up Constitution on the Senate side). NO THEY'RE NOT, I shouted and pointed. Everyone in the staging area turned and let out a huge shout of joy.
WE CIRCLED CONGRESS! As that front line began to cross 3rd St, a block away from returning to the Mall, I looked back over to the other end of 3rd to see the last marchers just stepping off the Mall to begin. It was powerful, it was impressive, it was historic.
I didn't march today, as I have so many other times over the past almost 40 years. Today, I watched as you marched. It was a different view of the same event, a different perspective. But no less satisfying -- for what I watched was a powerful enduring lesson in democracy.
Today, you marched peacefully, orderly and with purpose. Beware the Member of Congress or the Administration who does not heed the rising voice of the people. Or the memories of those who marched today should American and Iraqi lives continue to be lost and destroyed because of hubris, arrogance and blind ambitions.
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