Been reading a lot of well-written, angry articles about the impending war on Iraq. There’s Mark Driver from Blind Wino (warning to the sensitive: profanity); and Mark Morford’s article for SFGate, which starts with “This is not a war,” so how could I not like it? Great stuff. But I’m beginning to wonder if any words, from anyone, will make a difference in this situation. I feel defeated. Minds are made up, and that’s it. The country has decided that whatever plan Dubya comes up with, on this or any other issue, Toby Keith will sing and they will clap and hang up flags and there’s the end of it.
I guess I’m just pleased that voices like those I’ve linked to above still exist. For now.
I’ll be rallying in San Francisco today in one last ditch effort to show America that it is in fact not united behind dubya. The latest polls show up to 2/3 of people not in favor of a war unless some pretty specific criteria are met. Any policy change will happen in backrooms, I know, but since I don’t have the key to those backrooms yet I’ll be rabble rousing.
Adam, massive protests all over the world are happening today, right as we speak!
Bush may ultimately prevail with his evil doneness but not without a fight.
Adam, the event in SF was HUGE. 2-3 hours after the march began, there were still marchers to the horizon, all working their way to the peace rally. The crowd included people from all walks of life – church groups, veterans, students, teachers, kids, parents. Friends who tried to go to the rally turned back. So many people were trying to get into the city for the rally that there was a two hour wait to board a train.
Arthur: That’s fantastic! Now the question is, do these events get press coverage?
They got more coverage than in October. CNN Headline News had the protests as their top story. They spent two minutes on it. Yes, they went right into war propaganda immediately after, and they didn’t detail how big the SF march was, but they showed footage from around the world and listed many of the countries that had protests. Not perfect, but better than last time. See some great aerial photos here: http://sf.indymedia.org/news/2003/01/1562069.php . I got some photos on the ground but have not done anything with them yet.
Also, courtesy of Boyfriend-Unit Matt, here’s a Salon write-up on the protests:
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2003/01/20/san_francisco/