David and I went to DC yesterday to participate in the demonstration organized by United For Peace and Justice, an umbrella organization of peace and justice advocacy groups.
It was good to see and be among like-minded people who shared a need to show by our presence what the administration seems not to understand in words. It was the answer to the question,
"What didn't understand when we voted the way we did in November?"
Among the standard speakers (Jesse Jackson, Susan Sarandon, Jane Fonda, etc) were an Iraqi blooger who told us in no uncertain terms that we need to leave his country and the father of a soldier at risk for imprisonment for "blowing the whistle" on torture. Sean Penn, said that we need " a resolution as binding as the death toll," and not a symbolic, non-binding resolution against the "surge" by Congress.
You believed Congresswoman Maxine Waters (CA) when she said "I'm not afraid of George Bush and I'm not afraid of Dick Cheney," and promised not to settle for anything less than withdrawal.
When I marched during anti-Viet Nam demonstration, I remember the tension we felt between us and the police (or college administrators at BU, John Silber and William Bennett.) They hated us. There was none of that this time. What few police we saw seemed supportive. The small delegation of counter-protesters were kept at a distance, and they needed no help in highlighting the absurdity of their presence.
It wasn't the 1963 civil rights march, or the '68 anti-war march, but. after years of a resounding absence of public dissent the embedded press, it was good to be out there across the Mall from the Capitol .
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