Our Grief Is Not A Cry
For War
Hello all,
I hope you all have heard about peace rallies and marches that happened in
your area and in Washington this past weekend. I have just returned fromDC
and thought that I would share my thought and experience.
The rally was organized by a coalition made of many groups, under the new
umbrella of Act Now to Stop War and End Racism (ANSWER). The groups thatmade
represented a large range of causes, including Native American Rights,Free
Mumia Abu-Jamal, Get the US Navy out of Vieques, P.R., Close the SchoolOf
Americas, Labor Unions for affirmative action. I rode down on a bus fromNY,
with two friends, that was organized by International Action Center (founded
by former secretary of state Ramsey Clark). IA center seems to be largely
a active socialist group working for all sorts of causes to benefit workers.
I am new to activism. I have found groups that do work I could support financially,
and have felt good about that. I have been writing more and more letters,
but I had yet to see causes that I would actively organize and rally for.
I have been learning about the free trade problem for a few years, starting
when I saw first hand some effects of the Global economy in Guatemala. Ihad
planned to go to a protest in Washington this weekend in conjunctionwith
an IMF/World bank meeting. The meeting and coinciding protests werecanceled
after the September 11th attacks.
I wrote an email to President Bush on September 12, urging him to use restraint.
I have since written more letters and signed a few petitions urging the same
thing. When I heard of the rally, I knew I had to go. I knew this was
something that I could not miss.
I drove to NYC Friday, and stayed with friends. We were up at 4 am Saturday
to get into Manhattan and get on the bus by six. We were in DC at Freedom
Plaza at 11 am. On the way down I talked some to a labor organizer in NY.
While over the last few weeks, I had heard many times that September 11,was
an event like Pearl Harbor, that would change us as a nation, he saidthis
rally was more reminiscent of the first organized protests against Vietnam.
His point was that it was a very hard time to speak out against overwhelming
public opinion supporting
military action, and it was a time for many groups to come together, andwork
for peace, as their individual causes mean nothing without world peace.And
if world peace were to happen, their issues would go away as well.
Having never been to a protest, really, and having heard about the recent
free trade protests and the associated violence, I was nervous. I had checked
out the organization before hand, and knew that I was embarking on a legal,
permitted protest, with a reputable nationwide organization. Still, I just
didn't know what I would do. I knew I needed to be there, but I didn't know
what that meant. So when
they asked for security volunteers, I decided I could help out. I do well
as support staff, and feeling needed.
Once off the bus I was sent around to different people in charge to figure
out what I could do. There had been some organizing of a counter, pro America,
pro war(?) rally, and there was fear that they would try to disrupt our peaceful
march. There was some disorganization but I finally got oriented and putto
work. As a monitor all I needed to do was watch for trouble, and if anything
happened, to passively divert it. As we learned that there were only about
100 counter demonstrators, and over 10,000 of us, we all relaxed.
The two hour rally gave the opportunity for representatives from every member
of the coalition a chance to speak, for 1-3 minutes. I spent a lot of the
time watching at the edges of the plaza for trouble, where I could not hear
all of the speakers. During the rally there were at least three men, that
caused trouble. They would come into the rally with confrontational signs.
If someone questioned them about it, they started taking swings. All three
of them seemed altered, either in anger, or trauma, or something. Once we
knew who they were it was easy enough to
keep tabs on them and keep them out of trouble.
Signs in our rally read: Our Grief is not a cry for war! Why do we kill people
to show people that killing people is Wrong? Peace! An eye for an eye makes
the world blind. Among others. I made a conscious decision to
go to the rally as a participant and not as a reporter. I did not bring my
camera, or a tape recorder or note pad. I needed to be there for myself.There
were so many people documenting the event. I would say there were 1000video
cameras there. I have no idea if they were private or big media. Everywhere
I turned someone was being interviewed for some reason. When ever I was asked
a question I tried to find out who was asking. I didn't really get askedanything,
though I did fill out a questionnaire for a Cornell graduate studentproject
on movements and
protests.
I saw two Unitarian Universalists there that I knew. They were all the people
I found that I knew though I had hoped to find more. One was from Seattle.
One was from Oberlin, Ohio. Oberlin sent over 100 students. I
also saw signs from Minnesota, Alaska, UMass, Vermont and Arizona. I am sure
there are others I forgot now.
At 2 we headed up Pennsylvania Avenue, past the navy Memorial and the Justice
department. And ended at Upper Senate Park, just north of the Capital, about
two hours later. I was watching one of the confrontational guys up aheadof
the march, and was surprised to see the Police chief, walking with onecaptain,
and no gear right in the leading edge of the march. One officersaw us watching
the trouble maker, and got between us and him, and let usback off. This police
presence was a good contrast to the feeling I got fromthe officers in riot
gear lining every cross street as we marched and surroundingthe square. The
originally appeared when they escorted a non permitted groupof protesters
to join ours. While they were there and it seemed tense, theywere very respectful
of our right to be there. Another instance that showedthe contrast, was at
the final rally. People had decided to swim
and play in the fountain. On one side two officers were coming around the
edge asking people fairly rudely to get out. Everyone complied peacefully
and relatively quickly. As I came around to the other side. I saw three officers
standing on the fountain, smiling and laughing. Next to them a woman washolding
a sign, "There is no us. There is no them. There is WE". In a smallcrowd
below them all were laughing and pointing. There were about ten videocameras
recording the event.
In the Navy Memorial was the counter protest. As a monitor I was again alittle
tense. Their messages were, Love it or leave it. Swim to Cuba. Don'tbother
going to Afghanistan, the enemy is here today. There were a few policealong
the curb between us. No one seemed violent. Many people in our marchfelt
that this was a time for discussion and stopped to talk with the 'counters'.
The only thing they were called to me was the counters or counter demonstrators.
I do not know if they were organized or by what group. A few peace protesters
were more confrontational in their remarks, but certainly not violent. Iwish
that I had reminded some people from our group to remember that shoutingremarks
in response was somewhat counter to our message.
September 11, is a day that changed my perspective on the world. It did not
change it drastically, just stepped it up a degree. All those things I was
pretty sure were wrong in the world and feared would cause big trouble some
day, now have caused big trouble. That day is here. The rally was just the
beginning in a process for me to figure out just exactly I can do about it.
It will be hard to learn and become well informed.
This is my report of what happened. This morning I read a Schenectady paper.
The article on the Albany rally seemed fair, but then I wasn't there. The
article on the Washington Rally was ridiculous. The report said nothing of
the issues, or the coalition, and focused of minor police incidents witha
tiny minority of the protesters. They reported a 'few thousand' atthe gathering.
The organizers reported 20,000. My guess is it was just over10,000.
I guess I don't have time to get into all the issues that I have learnedmore
about. They would take a lot more than one email. I have begun to thinkabout
the problems in terms of conflicting view points.
-war vs Peace ( what I went for)
-civil rights vs security
-economy vs repressive economic foreign policy
-justice vs peace
-civil rights vs economy
-unmeasurable tragedy
-many Christians believe that if millions of Muslims get killed, it is just
a sign of the rapture
-the hart rudman report (basically predicts this disaster as a way to galvanize
Americans so they will accept a decrease in civil liberties needed to protect
our way of life in a world that is increasingly hostile about economic and
justice inequality- there are signs of these liberties disappearing already)
If some of these ideas are new or seem implausible, please take the timeto
check them out. I don't know what you will find in popular media. I willbe
looking for more information myself. I always look for the source of information
and two view points before I will begin to give a media source some credit.
I challenge you all to become informed about these issues, and to act ina
way that you are comfortable. There is a call to world wide action forOctober
27. I hope you will all make plans to attend rallies in your city.I don't
even mind if you are on the other side of the curb from me. www.protest.net
is a good source for information about protests. It also has good links that
tell you more about the issues. www.aicenter.org is the international action
center, which organized buses from NY to this last protest. If you are in
or near NYC, this a good place to look for transportation to Washington on
October 27.
Thank you all for reading this far. I did not plan to write so much, anddon't
feel I was terribly eloquent. This is just my point of view. I hopethat it
will continue dialogues that have been started. I am very interestedto hear
what other media sources have said about Saturday's rallies.
Peace,
Michael