...a little to the left...
...is what I'd say if someone asked me "how's it hanging?"
As you may already know, our nation’s capital was host to a confluence of activity this weekend, the most prominent of which was a large ant-war protest on Saturday afternoon. Most District Dwellers were already dreading the arrival of such a large group (estimated initially to be 100,000 strong) because we know that these events bring the two things we hate the most and have way too much of – traffic and visitors from out of town who don’t know how things work here. Personally, most of us here in DC share a lot of ideology with the group, and in another life I would love to paint my own protest signs and scream at random Republicans. However, ideology is irrelevant when it comes to large protests in this city. It’s hard to care about anything but the fact that it’s going to take you an extra half hour to get anywhere…on a Saturday, no less.
Yet, since I didn’t have a lot going on this weekend, I wanted to experience some of the excitement of what was going on, more from an observer’s perspective than that of a participant. I found myself awash in protestors Saturday as I exited the Farragut North metro stop to return a mistakenly acquired jacket from our happy hour Friday (long story). I really had never observed a large protest up close, and actually found the experience much less hostile
than I imagined. I won’t say that I saw anyone preaching peace and love, but anger was most certainly not the emotion of the day. Many of the people were angry because they feel frustrated and helpless in the face of a government that really doesn’t want to hear them, but I think most of the people there were just excited because there were so many others that shared a common philosophy. It also helped that many in the crowd were not professional protestors like the hardened anarchists we had in town for the inauguration this past January. It seemed that many had a very personal stake in making sure the government heard their message. This picture of Mothers Against the War illustrates that well.
As I decided to take my somewhat standard Sunday bike ride down to the Mall today, I realized that the protests were not over. As I approached, I heard someone on a loud speaker or bull horn screaming something incoherent. What I realized as I got even closer was that this was not a continuation of the large protest from the day before, but a
pseudo-protest supporting the government’s policies in Iraq, which if you think about it, isn’t a protest at all. Yet they had a stage cobbled together and about a hundred or so people mulling around with lots of homemade t-shirts and signs, which said things like “Saddam was a WMD”, “Iraq yearns for Freedom”, and my personal favorite, “Freedom Isn’t Free”. Apparently these people were protesting the previous protest from the day before, but doing a piss-poor job of it. While this rally did have most of the ingredients of the first, it lacked two important parts – numbers and respect. Everyone knew these were the “if you hate the war, you hate the troops” people, and knew that they were idiots. Even the cops, who were out in force doing their jobs remarkably well this weekend, seemed to react differently to these guys, and you know that when the cops are laughing at you, you really need to redesign your protest.
I’m obviously a little biased here. I’m a huge flaming Democrat and hate seeing the numbers of dead and wounded in Iraq climb every day, along with the number of billions of dollars we spend. Yet, I think the merit of both ideologies can be compared best by the actions of the protestors this weekend. Anti-war protestors, on the whole, were friendly and genial, while the pro-war (that’s the only way I know how to put it) protestors were downright hostile and antagonistic. The best comparison between the two rallies was what they shouted. At one point, the pro-war Sunday rally had a supporter onstage who said “I have a message for Cindy Sheehan. Cindy lied, and Casey cried.” (We all know who Cindy Sheehan is at this point, and Casey was the name of her son that died in the war.) This statement disgusted me so much that I decided I needed to turn my bike around and go home. On my way home, I remembered what the most memorable statement from the day before was as thousands of anti-war protestors stood in front of the White House. “We don’t need a megaphone anymore” was very powerful from four blocks away.
And then there was the father and daughter at the Falung Gong stand. They sat on a blanket, meditating as the protestors were screaming a little ways down on the mall. I see these guys in the same place almost every time I come down there, and their perseverance and calm today made me stop an watch for a minute. That’s then I thought, this is why I love our country.
As you may already know, our nation’s capital was host to a confluence of activity this weekend, the most prominent of which was a large ant-war protest on Saturday afternoon. Most District Dwellers were already dreading the arrival of such a large group (estimated initially to be 100,000 strong) because we know that these events bring the two things we hate the most and have way too much of – traffic and visitors from out of town who don’t know how things work here. Personally, most of us here in DC share a lot of ideology with the group, and in another life I would love to paint my own protest signs and scream at random Republicans. However, ideology is irrelevant when it comes to large protests in this city. It’s hard to care about anything but the fact that it’s going to take you an extra half hour to get anywhere…on a Saturday, no less.
Yet, since I didn’t have a lot going on this weekend, I wanted to experience some of the excitement of what was going on, more from an observer’s perspective than that of a participant. I found myself awash in protestors Saturday as I exited the Farragut North metro stop to return a mistakenly acquired jacket from our happy hour Friday (long story). I really had never observed a large protest up close, and actually found the experience much less hostile
than I imagined. I won’t say that I saw anyone preaching peace and love, but anger was most certainly not the emotion of the day. Many of the people were angry because they feel frustrated and helpless in the face of a government that really doesn’t want to hear them, but I think most of the people there were just excited because there were so many others that shared a common philosophy. It also helped that many in the crowd were not professional protestors like the hardened anarchists we had in town for the inauguration this past January. It seemed that many had a very personal stake in making sure the government heard their message. This picture of Mothers Against the War illustrates that well.As I decided to take my somewhat standard Sunday bike ride down to the Mall today, I realized that the protests were not over. As I approached, I heard someone on a loud speaker or bull horn screaming something incoherent. What I realized as I got even closer was that this was not a continuation of the large protest from the day before, but a
pseudo-protest supporting the government’s policies in Iraq, which if you think about it, isn’t a protest at all. Yet they had a stage cobbled together and about a hundred or so people mulling around with lots of homemade t-shirts and signs, which said things like “Saddam was a WMD”, “Iraq yearns for Freedom”, and my personal favorite, “Freedom Isn’t Free”. Apparently these people were protesting the previous protest from the day before, but doing a piss-poor job of it. While this rally did have most of the ingredients of the first, it lacked two important parts – numbers and respect. Everyone knew these were the “if you hate the war, you hate the troops” people, and knew that they were idiots. Even the cops, who were out in force doing their jobs remarkably well this weekend, seemed to react differently to these guys, and you know that when the cops are laughing at you, you really need to redesign your protest.
I’m obviously a little biased here. I’m a huge flaming Democrat and hate seeing the numbers of dead and wounded in Iraq climb every day, along with the number of billions of dollars we spend. Yet, I think the merit of both ideologies can be compared best by the actions of the protestors this weekend. Anti-war protestors, on the whole, were friendly and genial, while the pro-war (that’s the only way I know how to put it) protestors were downright hostile and antagonistic. The best comparison between the two rallies was what they shouted. At one point, the pro-war Sunday rally had a supporter onstage who said “I have a message for Cindy Sheehan. Cindy lied, and Casey cried.” (We all know who Cindy Sheehan is at this point, and Casey was the name of her son that died in the war.) This statement disgusted me so much that I decided I needed to turn my bike around and go home. On my way home, I remembered what the most memorable statement from the day before was as thousands of anti-war protestors stood in front of the White House. “We don’t need a megaphone anymore” was very powerful from four blocks away.
And then there was the father and daughter at the Falung Gong stand. They sat on a blanket, meditating as the protestors were screaming a little ways down on the mall. I see these guys in the same place almost every time I come down there, and their perseverance and calm today made me stop an watch for a minute. That’s then I thought, this is why I love our country.
posted by Marty Stroodler at 11:39 PM
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