I spoke with a 60-ish woman on the metro into town who was initially concerned that the anti-war movement of today was looking a bit grey – until we pulled in to the College Park stop and were inundated with fresh-faced college students serious about the business of stopping this war.  I think the youth of America were well represented on Saturday.

As we stood waiting to feed in to the march I spoke with a young man who told me how he had been in the West Bank at the time of the funeral for Yasser Arafat and how he had gotten caught up in the violent chaos that had erupted in the huge crowd of Palestinian mourners.  That made the wait in the gorgeous afternoon sunshine far easier to tolerate.

I spoke with a mother of a soldier serving in Iraq whose tour of duty had just been extended.  Her son, while not against his mom participating in the effort to end the war, had asked that she not demonstrate while he was serving.  Conflicted but with a keen sense of purpose – she decided that her “conscience wouldn’t allow her to be anywhere else” and felt that her son would eventually accept her decision if not understand.

And finally, I spoke with a young Virginia couple that had brought their 18-month old daughter to the march.  They were largely apolitical with a slight lean to the Right until they got pregnant and admitted that only then did they start looking closely at the direction our country was moving.  They were now registered Democrats, she had made time to volunteer for the Webb campaign and he told me, “If I can do anything about it, my daughter is not going to live in a country or a world where war is acceptable.”

Yes.  That’s why we marched.

Follow this link to photos of our day:
DC March

I would like to put a shout out to the Kossacks I met yesterday and again thank Rena for pulling them all together - and her deft handling of a megaphone.  In the excitement and confusion I didn’t get to meet you all or talk at length with many but it was a pleasure.