Good evening. I have some thoughts on D.C. but as always, we’ll open with Democracy Now!
Up to 300,000 Protest Against War in D.C.
Hundreds of thousands rallied around the world Saturday to call for President Bush to bring troops home from Iraq. In Washington DC, between one and three hundred thousand gathered for the city's largest anti-war demonstration since the Vietnam War. Thousands more marched in London, Copenhagen, Damascus, Helsinki, Paris, Rome, Seoul, Toronto, San Francisco, Los Angeles and other cities and towns.
30 Die in String of Attacks in Iraq
In Iraq, at least 30 people have died over the past two days in a series of car bombings and shootings. Earlier today a suicide car bombing killed at least seven in front of the oil ministry in Baghdad.
So things aren’t any better in Iraq. Is it a surprise?
People keep acting like things will get better and their numbers are thinning, thankfully. Most people are starting to wake up.
Which brings me to D.C. this weekend. It was awesome seeing all those people standing up for peace, standing up against the government. I got a few e-mails from people who weren’t able to go but who did take part in their area and I think that’s so cool.
Know what else I think is cool? All the people who showed up and all the people I was with. I want to do some thank yous to The Third Estate Sunday Review's Dona, Jess, Ty, Ava and Jim, Rebecca of Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude, Betty Thomas Friedman Is a Great Man, C.I. of The Common Ills and The Third Estate Sunday Review, Kat of Kat's Korner (of The Common Ills), Cedric of Cedric's Big Mix, Elaine of Like Maria Said Paz, Ruth of Ruth's Morning Edition Report and her granddaughter Tracey, Jess' parents, Jim's father, my folks and Nina. All of us taking part made it really something.
I couldn’t have had more fun with another bunch of people. My folks and Nina went and they had a great time too. My mother said I better put in here thank you to C.I.’s friend who turned his house over to us for the weekend. It was really nice and it was nice of him. I won’t put his name in because he wants to be unnamed. But we had a great time and we were lucky to have a base of operations.
Sidney wrote that he was sorry about all the problems with Blogger. Mee too. It was really depressing. The post with all the voices is up. But we all either wanted to scream or cry or hit something when we lost that the first time.
Blogger’s been a huge problem for everyone and Rebecca did try to blog at her site and couldn’t even get in. Reading C.I.’s post this morning, I see that there are still problems. Dona had some ideas on posts from now on so we’ll all be doing something to make sure we have a copy in the future that’s outside of Blogger.
Sidney wondered if it was so frustrating that we just felt like the weekend was a wash? No, we just got more active and stuff. It was so cool and not even stupid Blogger could dampen our spirits. Taking part in something so huge and all, standing up and saying, "Bully Boy, you are wrong" was what it was about.
We left Sunday evening. Jess too. He wanted to spend some time with his parents so he rode with all of us back. We were all tired but not like the drooping tired. This was like a tired where you feel good because you know you worked hard.
I think it makes a difference. Dorinda e-mailed to say the war’s still going on and so nothing changed. I don’t believe nothing changed. I believe we went there and we shared in protest and that it has effect. People will talk about the march, about the rally, about the music, the speeches and maybe the New York Times won’t talk about it, but the people who went will. Today, everyone was asking me what it was like. People care, they want to know.
And all of us, all 300,000 of us, are going to be talking about and people will be listening. It makes an impact.
I’ll be talking about this for the rest of the week, on and off, probably.
Someone asked me on campus if C.I. was depressed and I knew C.I. was tired but I was all, "What are you talking about?" And it was about this morning’s thing at The Common Ills.
C.I.’s depressed about the New York Times, not about the protests. We were hearing about this coverage or that coverage and we pretty much missed it. We saw reporters talking to people and all but we didn’t read or hear the coverage. We were too busy taking part. Saturday’s New York Times we read, those of us who were up early. Sunday, we really didn’t have time. C.I. read that one article on the Times and was just sure that there had to be a real article on Monday. When there wasn’t, C.I. was depressed.
That’s not a protest thing, that’s a general depression about the state of the Times. I don’t expect anything from the Times. It’s a rag. But C.I. always has hope that the paper will turn around and when it doesn’t, that’s depressing.
But there was too much great stuff for even the Times to take away the power of the weekend.
The Dads' high point was Jessica Lange. I got to be honest, I didn't know who she was. But Jim's dad, Jess' dad and my dad were all like, "Jessica Lange!" :D
She's a beautiful woman. And she gave a great speech. But if the Dads hadn't been so psyched over her, I probably would've thought she was one of the mothers or something. She's also an actress and we'll be renting her movies to show our support so I'll be seeing her acting. But I think it was great she was there. And great that she gave such a powerful speech. But I gotta tell you, the Dads were highly impressed. I guess it would be like if me and my friends went to a rally ten or twenty years from now and saw Natalie Portman speaking.
I'll be talking about D.C. all week and I'll probably talk about it with Betty too for our interview that goes up Wednesday. Her kids were there this weekend. Almost forgot that. That makes a difference too. It was protesting with loved ones.
