This Is (pretty much) What Democracy Looks Like

Well, Bush wasn't in D.C. but a hell of a lot of other people were today. (apparently, Bush was in Austin, TX.)

We arrived at the "Ellipse" around 10:30 am, where United for Peace and Justice, ANSWER, et al were assembling. Code Pink started off just accross the way. As the crowd gathered, we were told that more were on their way, stuck up in the D.C. metro system and traffic.

By around 11:30, they announced that about 250,000 people has assembled, with more still on the way. A number of speakers from 10 am to around 2 pm... From Jesse Jackson to Ralph Nader, Cindy Sheehan, George Galloway, Elias Rashmawai, leaders from the labor movement, Unite, ANSWER and ImpeachBush.com...all demanding an end to the occupation of Iraq (and Palestine, Haiti, the Philippines...), and asking Americans to demand truth and responsibility from their government (didn't really quite get ALL that accomplished today, but...)

Galloway, an author and a member of British Parliament, said: "There is an absolute need for your country and for my country to stand shoulder to shoulder against the war criminals -Tony Blair and George W. Bush. It is also important to demonstrate to the peoples of the world, particularly the people of the occupied world, that these criminals are not acting in our name. This is not any clash of civilizations! This is not a war between the people of the West and the people of the East. This is not between Christianity and Islam. George Bush does not represent any civilization!"

Many great signs, wonderful people, and suprisingly chill police. There was a small group of protesters protesting the protest - always nice to see. They camped out outside the FBI building and, from what I heard, struck up some heated but not violent conversations with the peace demonstrators. As usual, the mainstream media is giving the pathetic numbers of pro-bush supporters equal media time as the hundreds-of-thousands anti-bush contingent on tonights news in the effort to be 'fair and balanced."

The protest was HUGE, although I'm going to take the current reports on turnout with a grain or 2 of salt...speakers at the rally were reporting a high of 300,000, while other media sources are leaving it at something like 'much more than the 100,000 expected.' The police have so far declined to comment on the population of the protest, but I do know that the line of people circled the protest route (aprox 20 blocks) so fast that for a while there was no place to go - the protest route was full of people and for a little bit it was more like a stand in than a march.

Evening events were good - my highlight of the evening was a great performance by the Coup... and a great set by Steve Earl. Spirits were high and the organization of the event was excellent - now it's all of our jobs to take that energy and determination back to our own communities (Blogger is not letting me upload any more pics right now for some reason, so i'll try again tomorrow)


So...I've slept maybe 10 hours since last Thursday and I don't think I can make much more of this right now. So many things going on today, my brain is mush and it's one of those things I'll just have to ponder for longer before I'll have any perspective. More to come... and it'll sound a hell of a lot more exciting after a hell of a lot of sleep...I promise!