Oh dear, she's becoming a radical.

[ebonlock]

Still with me? My, you are a brave lot.

Friday night was full of piratey goodness while I worked on a wrap to wear with my evening gown for The One Party this weekend and sipped on a chocolate brownie Frappaccino. I am undecided on it, very chocolatey, but also a bit crunchy (brownie bits). Not so sure I like crunchy coffee.

Saturday I got up bright and early and headed up to SF for the peace march I'd decided to attend. I was both a little nervous, and excited to be going on my own, it felt rather daring and odd in a way. I usually travel up to the city with a friend or sibling so there's someone to talk to. This time I did more listening, and on a car packed full of like minded protesters that was pretty interesting. It was so nice to be among people who were so positive and happy, and really believed what they were doing was right and good. The spirit was jovial and calm, and conversations were struck up with complete strangers, and there was a great deal of laughter. One older man grinned at our section, mostly filled with teenagers and a few parents to supervise, and said, "Now you watch, there'll be dozens of news crews there today and we'll get maybe a few seconds on the news tonight. The rest of the time will be spent showing six guys pouring French wine down a gutter. I've seen the same shot of that every night on the news casts so far."

We all laughed, I especially hard as I'd seen exactly the same piece he was speaking of.

Despite the crowding on BART everyone was incredibly polite and generous about sharing space, and we all got off in good spirits and made our way out of the station. As we climbed the stairs a homeless man was climbing down and shouting, "Traitors to the right!" One of the protestors, with a rather whimsical smile on his face glanced at all of us and quipped, "But I thought he already was on the right, isn't that the point?" Fighting hostility with humor was exactly the right approach and it restored everyones' mood immediately.

We came out into the light to see thousands of people, literally more than I can remember seeing at Pride the last couple of years, singing, playing music, talking, listening to speakers, holding up signs, and basically showing their solidarity to the cause. There were literally more groups and interests there than one could shake a stick at. I was astonished that all these disparate "focus groups" could unite so effectively and so peacefully behind this one cause. Here's a nice shot to give you an idea of the size of the crowd (estimated at about 80,000). I was pleasantly surprised by how many younger folks were there, students, even toddlers. Indeed one of the speakers was a 13 year old who was leading protests in her middle school.

The march got started after a bit and I fell in, eager to get started. Things were a bit slow as we left City Hall, but there was no pushing or rushing, we all waited for things to ease up, then moved ahead when we could. I caught up with a couple of folks holding "Witches against War" signs and was pleased to have found something of a niche in this vast sea of people.

There were lots of interesting and entertaining signs, some of my favorites being "Blame Florida", one showing Bush's face superimposed over Gollum with the text, "They has our Precious, and we wants it!", and a gorgeous young woman perched on a mailbox had a little handmade sign that read, "Frodo failed, Bush has the ring". Yay geeky protesters *G*

We marched what must have been a few miles up to Franklin Square and I was delighted to see how many folks in the area had come out to smile and wave and hold up their own signs. One older woman held a sign that read, "Recovering Republican" and we all laughed as we passed by and waved back to her.

Your truly had forgotten to bring some water with her, so I ducked into a shop to grab a Gatorade. The shopkeepers were wearing pro-peace t-shirts and seemed very relieved when I had some ones to give them. Apparently everyone was paying with $20s which made their lives more difficult. Yuppie foodstamps indeed.

I saw a lot of folks who seemed to treat the march as if it were another interesting tourist attraction in SF ("Honey, get a picture of that guy!"), but they were far outnumbered by those of us who were there to actually support our beliefs and protest. I took a great deal of comfort in that.

I remember topping a hill and turning to look behind to see the march going on and on and on. It was just this huge river of people all moving as one. The park at Franklin Square was already packed by the time I got there, but I grabbed a shady spot and settled in to people watch for a bit. It was relaxing in a pleasant and unexpected way. I usually hate crowds and feel tense and nervous in them, but this one was quite the opposite. It was just nice.

After a bit I got wanderlust and decided to go check out the rest of the march I'd missed. So I backtracked and got to hear some incredible drumming and marching bands that were playing further down. Also spotted some bellydancers, which made me grin. The people just kept going on and on, smiling face after smiling face, it was just mind boggling.

As I got close to downtown and headed back for the BART station a gentleman passed me going in the same direction. "Quite an event, huh?" he asked. "It sure was." I replied, "It sure was."

Of course, catching the news coverage that night, instead of people pouring wine down a gutter, it was a small group of breakaway protesters who apparently engaged in "violence" by attempting to block a street. The newscasters had a field day with it, all but glossing over the several thousands of folks who'd marched without any negative incidents. Ah well, that's local news for you.

Continuing the theme for today, some pieces that I find quite interesting:

Confronting Iraq: Might Doesn't Make Right
By Ian Urbina and Desmond Tutu
The question is not whether the United States has the ability to change the current heinous regime in Baghdad. It does. The question is whether it is worth the cost, not just in terms of the fate of diplomacy and law, but also in terms of the thousands of innocent victims which will result now and down the road in the repercussions to come.

And I highly recommend David Neiwert's "Orcinus" blog, particularly his series of articles "Rush, Newspeak and Fascism" which focuses on movement of mainstream conservativism towards the extreme right, and the "Patriot" movement in particular. I haven't had a chance to read all of it yet, but want to thank bryant for sharing the links. Pretty interesting stuff.

Now to try to get some work done today while contemplating what Dubyah has in store for us all tonight...

Comments

[tersa.livejournal.com]

I'm glad to hear you had such a good time at the march on Saturday. (The nightly news is, sadly, not what it once was. :/)

[mallen.livejournal.com]

movement of mainstream conservativism towards the extreme right

One person's categorization of "extreme" isn't necessarily a universal categorization. Are there right wing nut jobs? Of course. Do a lot of them have radio shows? Yeah. So what? They sputter and sputter and hiss and steam. I don't really see the danger of our country awash in fascism (with overtones of Christian fundamentalism.)

As for "demonizing" anti-war folks about being "unpatriotic" and "a fifth column," I think there is a very very small minority about which that is true, but the vast majority of anti-war people really think, in good faith, that opposing war is in the best interests of the United States. I can't claim to understand the logic, but I can respect that opinion.

Re:

[ebonlock.livejournal.com]

As for "demonizing" anti-war folks about being "unpatriotic" and "a fifth column," I think there is a very very small minority about which that is true, but the vast majority of anti-war people really think, in good faith, that opposing war is in the best interests of the United States. I can't claim to understand the logic, but I can respect that opinion.

That's one of the things I love most about you, hon, you may not understand why people believe what they do, but you're willing to respect us anyway. I just can't help thinking that if everyone could try to be as open minded this world would be a bit better off than it is.

[centerfire.livejournal.com]

As for "demonizing" anti-war folks about being "unpatriotic" and "a fifth column," I think there is a very very small minority about which that is true, but the vast majority of anti-war people really think, in good faith, that opposing war is in the best interests of the United States. I can't claim to understand the logic, but I can respect that opinion.

Perhaps less charitably, I think the anti-war movement consists of three camps: one, the fifth column types you mention; two, the good-faithers you also mention; and three, the reflexive partisans who oppose any and every policy of a Republican administration, regardless of the merits.

Given the rhetoric on the anti-war side, the kind of horseshit slogans employed on signs at these protests, I cannot ascribe good-faith motives to the majority of anti-war protesters. I would say that category three is by far the largest camp, category two a distant second, and category one the creamy ideological and organizational filling of the anti-war movement.

[centerfire.livejournal.com]

I love people like Neiwert, who self-describe as tolerant liberals who cherish diversity, but produce spiteful exposees about a few right-wing crackpots as ad hominem against his ideological opponents, generally. The liberal media even gives him awards for it.

[mallen.livejournal.com]

Given the rhetoric on the anti-war side, the kind of horseshit slogans employed on signs at these protests, I cannot ascribe good-faith motives to the majority of anti-war protesters. I would say that category three is by far the largest camp, category two a distant second, and category one the creamy ideological and organizational filling of the anti-war movement.

Maybe it's just because Clinton kicked the can down the road in 1998, that most of these anti-Bushies have such short memories. The difference between our foriegn policy stance in 1998 and 2003 consists of post-9/11 realpolitik coupled with a refusal to back away from "unpopular" options such as military force. (Although, I note with mild satisfaction, that a new poll shows some 60-something percent of Americans support force against Iraq.) I am also becoming mildly annoyed with this perception domestically and abroad that the collection of banana republic dictators and tinpot anti-democractic regimes (Guinea, Camaroon, Pakistan? Anyone? Anyone want to defend the idea that these countries have a legitimate veto on U.S. foreign policy?) that is the United Nations is somehow the sole arbiter of "international legitimacy." Whatever that means.

[centerfire.livejournal.com]

I'd take it a step further than you: not only do I want to understand why Cameroon should have veto powers over U.S. foreign policy, but I'd also like to know why Pakistani or even French support is anything we ought to be proud of.

When you get right down to it, I think the U.N. is really just an argument of convenience for the anti-war left. The domestic debate is the only one that matters -- indeed, the only one that has ever matters. The left knows this. But the left has lost that debate (assorted protests notwithstanding).

Instead of conceding, though, the left is trying to move the goalposts -- to "forum shop", and move the disagreement to a place where the threadbare arguments which are losers, domestically, appear to have a little more traction. This also explains why the left has stubbornly refuses to acknowledge the base opportunism that motivates most of the international opposition to the war -- to do that would be to stipulate ugly geopolitical realities (e.g., French oil interests and geopolitical aspirations, the fragility of the Schroeder government, et cetera) which would rob anti-war arguments of their already limited moral capital.

Re:

[ebonlock.livejournal.com]

Guys, I really appreciate that you took the time to read and respond to my post, but could I please ask you not to turn my LJ into a venue for liberal/leftist/anti-war bashing?

I mean you protest loudly when I bash the right wingers, and then turn around and do the very same thing to the left. Overgeneralizations are tricky things, and I realize that neither side has entirely clean hands, but I see the left as the lesser of two evils by a long haul. Just my opinion...but then again, this is my LJ. *G*

Again, I know that we have to agree to disagree on this subject, but I would also like to point out that it isn't just granola-eating-Republican hating-Socialist hippies that are opposed to this war. Two US diplomats have already resigned their posts in protest. Presumably they're folks who actually understand foreign policy, they're intelligent, informed individuals, who have formed thoughtful opinions regarding war with Iraq and have acted on them. I rather doubt either one resigned because it was the trendy thing to do.

I think one of the fundamental stumbling blocks in understanding one anothers' viewpoints on this comes from the difference in opinion regarding America's place in the world. I, and others like me, see the US as one country among many, an important one with a great deal of wealth and power, certainly, but just one. We should have a say on world events, but not the only say. Unfortunately this means that sometimes we're not going to have things entirely our way...I for one don't see this as a bad thing.