Last year at this time, March 2006, I wrote about the demonstration & march I participated in – in downtown Portland (OR) – an event that marked the third anniversary of the beginning of the war in Iraq. It was both well-intentioned and well-attended, with a crowd of at least 10,000 pouring into the streets to express group discontent with the U.S.’s aggressive conduct around the globe. However, as you recall, I lamented that this gathering of like-minded folks was not really as much a protest as it was a rally, or even a mere social gathering. I expressed my utter dismay that there was no pervasive sense of outrage, an emotion that, undeniably, permeated the anti-war movement during the Vietnam era. Here’s part of my message from last year:
OK: bottom line, here’s what I miss. The outrage. I want us, the American people, collectively, to be incredibly angry about the meaningless large-scale loss of life in a part of the world where we really have no legitimate business. I want us to be incensed about the erosion of our civil liberties. I want to hear of our insistence on being told the truth. I want a gathering of this magnitude to mean something: to be acknowledged as part of a nationwide effort to change the direction of the morally-bankrupt regime in, and agenda that we now have coming from, Washington, D. C.
The reason I’m reporting on this year-old history is that I’m still, here in the Spring of 2007, thinking these same thoughts! And I’m apparently not the only one. David Crary, an Associated Press writer, observes, in a recent article:
America’s current anti-war movement is resourceful and persistent, but often seems to lack the vibrancy of its counterpart in the Vietnam era when protesters burned draft cards, occupied buildings and even tried to levitate the Pentagon.
The primary argument for the differences, of then vs. now, is the lack of a draft. This is a hypothesis that, of course, strikes a chord with me. During Vietnam, the war was entirely personal. Every decision was made in the context of what the consequences would be for my draft classification. When I was a college freshman, for example, the mere dropping of a calculus class during my first semester put me at risk for being cannon fodder in a remote jungle. College students today have an entirely different reality and, for the most part, campuses are extremely tranquil places. Activism, and especially anti-war activism, is not really a part of the current student experience. (Getting a job is the primary deal, I guess.)
But, it’s 2007 and I still show up at protests: as I did last Sunday, this time in downtown San Francisco. The turnout was a huge disappointment for me, however. For, here we are, now four years into this war, and the best crowd that San Francisco could muster was estimated at about 3,000. The San Francisco Chronicle article reporting on the event began:
Calling for an immediate end to the American presence in Iraq, about 3,000 boisterous protesters marched from the Embarcadero through downtown San Francisco to Civic Center on Sunday afternoon.
What the march may have lacked in numbers, it made up for in intensity.
I was there. The numbers seem about right, but I’m not too sure about the “intensity” observation. Yes, some of the speakers from the platform had obvious passion, and spoke from their hearts about the unjustness and ridiculousness of this war, expressing genuine anger about the thousands and thousands of wasted lives. For the most part, though, these folks were ignored. There were no big-name speakers (as I had rather anticipated, given the locale), and during the talks (and subsequent march) most of the “boisterous protesters” were not, really.
What I observed this time reminded me of last year. There were lots of people with cameras (yes, including me, of course), operating in a party-picture mode. Many individuals were popping into the nearby Starbucks and Subway shops (at Justin Herman Plaza, the march’s starting point), soaking up the sunshine while enjoying their favorite latte or sandwich. There were tons of bumper stickers and buttons for sale. And there were a variety of street vendors hawking commercially-made protest signs. In fact, one particularly ambitious young entrepreneur, laden with pre-made signs, was walking among the gathering crowd yelling, “Signs. Placards. Get your signs and placards here.” (What was this? Was I at a ballpark? “Peanuts. Popcorn. Get your hotdogs here.”)
If you can believe it: I saw Girl Scout cookies for sale. And ice cream bars. Sigh…
I guess I missed the really “good stuff” in San Fran this time around, though. During a smaller demonstration, the next day (Monday, March 19), a (truly) more “boisterous” group of activists engaged in some acts of civil disobedience and got themselves arrested. The Chronicle reported:
San Francisco police arrested 57 anti-war activists in the city Monday as demonstrations were held throughout the Bay Area to mark the fourth anniversary of the U.S. war in Iraq .
The bulk of the arrests -- 45 -- were made shortly before 1 p.m. at the intersection of Montgomery and Market Streets, when protesters moved their sidewalk “die-in” to the middle of Market Street.
Blocking noontime traffic, activists sprawled out like war casualties. Some shrouded themselves under sheets with fake blood, and others chose a pose more befitting of a coffin, on their backs with closed eyes and clasping flowers to their chests. None resisted arrest.
Among those escorted to three police vans was a woman in a wheelchair, a woman in a nun’s habit and former Department of Defense official Daniel Ellsberg.
On Saturday March 17th, and in the days following, there will be numerous mass demonstrations against the war in Iraq. Most likely the largest of the gatherings will be the march on the Pentagon.
That weekend marks the fourth anniversary of the beginning of this war. And this year, 2007, happens to be the 40th anniversary of the historic 1967 anti-war march to the Pentagon during the Vietnam War. The message of the 1967 march was “From Protest to Resistance,” and is believed to have been a significant turning point in national sentiment. Let’s send a similar proclamation to the world this time around: we won’t stand for this!
I urge anyone and everyone reading these words to participate in the protests scheduled during this March weekend. While I was a college student in northern Wisconsin in the fall of 1967, regrettably I was not yet actively engaged in “the movement;” I was not at the Pentagon that time. And, while I won’t be at the Pentagon this year either, I have made plans to march in San Francisco on Sunday March 18th. It’s time to stand and be counted. And let’s all be counted…by the tens of thousands, by the hundreds of thousands and more…as opposed to this insanity!
It’s not far away. Make plans now. I’ll see you in San Francisco!
Do you believe that you know the truth when you hear it?
This morning, near the end of a long, otherwise-waste-of-time meeting, those of us in attendance were asked to provide feedback about a recent workshop experience. Now, given that I had been unable to attend that particular event, I was obviously unable to offer up any commentary.
So, I sat and just listened.
The first person to speak happened to provide some quite-critical remarks. But, he did it in a very gentle, thoughtful and articulate way, and it was obvious that he was speaking from the heart.
Ahhh, I said to my self, a truth-teller.
I was pretty amazed. This is not a group that, in my experience, can “tell it like it is.” It’s just not a safe enough environment in which to express one’s honest beliefs most of the time.
So, here’s something I know: there’s hardly anything in the world that’s quite as refreshing as an honest person speaking his or her own truth. (Especially when there may be some kind of risk involved.) You know: someone who just kind of lets it all hang out there, despite the possibility of consequences.
This happens to be the second time in a week I’ve witnessed an apparent truth-teller. Last Friday night, Bill Maher interviewed presidential candidate John Edwards on HBO’s “Real Time With Bill Maher.” Edwards is proposing a universal health-care system that would need more tax dollars to support. He openly admits that, regarding the most important issue he voted on in the U.S. Senate, the war in Iraq, he got it wrong. (!) And, he is against the current W. proposal for a “surge” and has a plan to disengage us from that debacle in about a year’s time.
Wow. A politician who admits a mistake. Someone who says he’d actually raise taxes. Pretty radical stuff.
Even Bill Maher was rather amazed, and observed that individuals who are that honest don’t typically get elected.
Edwards suggested we change all that in 2008.
So, what do you think? Does an honest politician exist? Is Edwards that person? Could this country possibly elect such an individual to our highest office?
YES! Magazine (online) has come through! As I mentioned in my January 27th post, last month the publication expressed an interest in some of my pro-peace/anti-war photos. They now have an entire page devoted to Who Can Stop the War? We the People– which includes, along the right-hand column of that layout, some shots from their contributing photographers. It appears that of their top six choices, five of them are mine!!
Over the last four years, for the time-span of the Iraq-war debacle, I’ve appointed myself an unofficial documentarian of local anti-war/pro-peace efforts (in both Eugene and Portland). As I’ve attended several marches and demonstrations during this time (naturally, because I’m personally aligned with their purposes and goals), I’ve always carried my camera. I’ve taken literally hundreds of pictures of such activities here in Oregon.
A couple of days ago, I was contacted by YES! Magazine asking if I would share some of my shots on their new flickr site devoted to anti-war/pro-peace photos. Their flickr effort is just getting underway, so, as I write this today, there’s not much there yet …but, it may be that you’d like to drop by the site and peruse the contributions every so often. Take a look and bookmark it. It’s at http://www.flickr.com/groups/yesmagazine-peace/.
