The weekend marches
Planet Waves Moderator
montly article. The next is a short account of the sudden rise in
popularity of protest music ... our "sound track." Then, the weekend
marches against war.
Jude
FINALLY, after a decade of my feeling nauseous at Bill Clinton's
sellout failure and George W. Bush's demented regime, I am again
proud of a public figure in my generation who wields cultural power:
Neil Young.
The ex-Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young singer-
songwriter-guitarist, who survived heroin addiction to rock on, has
had enough. Young's new album, Living With War (which he
describes as "metal folk protest") is a true social phenomenon, a
blend of passionate truth-telling, heartfelt social activism, and a
stunningly creative use of capitalism via the Internet. Written,
recorded, and produced in just under three weeks, the album bursts
onto the scene just as Uranus reaches the same point in the heavens
occupied by Saturn 40 years ago in 1965-66 when it opposed Uranus
and Pluto---a classic astrological trigger point (like an acid flashback
or, in this case, a flashforward). Along with the recent massive
immigrant demonstrations, these are initial salvos in the return of the
'60s. The impact will be thunderous. A groundswell of other protests
will follow as we approach critical mass in the months ahead and
years to come.
So get ready, people. Even as we continue to stumble through
perilous times, the dawn is breaking. Stand up for what you believe.
Let your voice be heard, and shout if you need to!
~ Bill Herbst
http://www.billherbst.com
What Neil Young, Springsteen, Pearl Jam and the Dixie Chicks have in
common
Don Hazen on May 1, 2006
http://www.alternet.org/blogs/themix/#35681
It's likely never, ever happened -- as Randall Wallace pointed out this
weekend, four of Amazon's top-ten selling records on April 30th have
real anti-war songs!
Number one is Springsteen's: The Seeger Sessions
Number six is Pearl Jam's: Pearl Jam
Number nine is the Dixie Chicks: Taking the Long Way
And the strongest of them all at number 3 is Neil Young's Living with
War, with his no-nonsense, courageous, take-it-to-the-people message:
Let's Impeach the President. Check out the whole cd free of charge now
at: http://www.neilyoung.com/
While you're listening to it, look at the very strong lyrics at:
http://livingwithwar.blogspot.com/2006/04/album-info.html
It's time to make Neil #1. So make your purchase now. ++
Protesters Give Bush the Finger
This weekend's enormous anti-war march in New York City was unlike
earlier protests, in part because none of the protesters even remotely
believed the President would listen to them
Tom Engelhardt
May 1, 2006
http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/35663/
.
It's the perfect day for a march. Sunny, crisp, clear, spring-like. The
sort of day that just gives you hope for no reason at all, though my own
hopes are not high for New York's latest antiwar demonstration. I
haven't received a single email about it. Many people I know hadn't
realized it was happening. I fear the outreach has been minimal and
despite all the signals of danger (of another war, this time with Iran)
and of possibility (nosediving presidential approval polls, an
administration in disarray, and the Republican Party in growing chaos),
I approach this 30 block march with something of a sinking heart.
This is only reinforced by the scene that meets the full staff of
Tomdispatch.com -- Nick Turse and me -- as we leave the subway at 18th
street and head east about an hour before the demonstrators are to step
off. The streets are still largely empty of all but the police, gathered
in knots at every corner. Their blue sawhorses ("police line do not
cross") rim the sidewalks seemingly to the horizon and everywhere you
can see stacks of the metal fencing with which the NYPD has become so
expert at hemming in any demonstration. None of this inspires great
confidence.
Sometimes, though, surprise is a wonderful thing. Who would have guessed
that several hours later I would be standing on Broadway and Leonard
Street looking back at perhaps 20 packed blocks of demonstrators --
bands, puppets, signs by the thousands, vets by the hundreds (if not the
thousands), huge contingents of military families, congeries of the
young, labor, women, the clergy, university and high school students,
raging grannies, radical cheerleaders, and who knows who else -- an
enormous mass of humanity as far as the eye can see and probably another
10 to 15 blocks beyond that. It was enough to make the heart leap. I had
no way of counting, no way of knowing whether what I saw was the 300,000
the organizers claimed or merely the vague "tens of thousands" mentioned
in most media reports. It was, to say the least though, a lot of people,
mobilized on limited notice.
As someone who lived through the era of Vietnam protests, this
demonstration had quite a different feel to it, and not just because of
all the military families (and the surprising number of people I talked
with who knew someone, or were related to someone, who had served in our
all-volunteer military in Iraq), but because no one in this
demonstration had the illusion that the White House was paying the
slightest bit of attention to them. The same, by the way, might be said
of the mainstream media. On the ABC and NBC prime time news this night,
the reports on this huge demonstration, sandwiched between what would be
billed as major stories, would zip by in quite literally a few seconds
each. In each case, if you hadn't been there, it would be easy to
believe from the reporting that this event had essentially never
occurred.
As I often do, I spent as much time as I could prowling the crowd,
talking to as many protesters as possible. A demonstration of this size
is a complex beast, one I would hesitate to characterize. I've tried
instead to offer below some of the voices I ran across -- or at least as
much of each of them as my slow hand could madly scribble on a pad of
paper. As modest as the cross-section I encountered was, I had the
feeling that, while the march was calm, lively, and upbeat, many of the
demonstrators had no illusions about what the future might hold. The
ones I met were almost uniformly disappointed in, or disgusted with, the
Democratic "opposition," fearful of a new war in Iran, realistic about
how hard it will be to get the President's men (and so our troops) out
of Iraq, and yet surprisingly determined that those troops should be
brought home as soon as humanly possible.
Perhaps such demonstrations are now not for the Bush administration, nor
really for the mainstream media either, but only for us. Perhaps they
are a reminder to all those who attend and to those numbering in their
hundreds of thousands, if not millions, on the political Internet that
we are here, alive, and humming. That is reason enough to demonstrate.
Throughout these years, signs -- individually made, hand-lettered,
sometimes just scrawled (not to speak of masks, puppets, complex
theatricals, elaborate visuals of every sort suitable for a world of
special effects) -- are the signature aspect of such demonstrations.
Here are some of the signs that caught my eye, not necessarily the
wildest among them, but ones that give something of the flavor of the
event:
"From Gulf to Gulf, George Bush, a category 5 disaster"
"Drop Bush, Not Bombs."
"Fermez La Bush"
"No ProLife in Iraq."
"1 was too many, 2400 is enough"
"War is terrorism with a bigger budget"
"Axis of Insanity" (with George, Condi, Don, and Dick dressed as an
Elmer Fudd-style hunter)
"One Nation under Surveillance"
"G.O.P. George Orwell Party"
"How Many Lives per Gallon?"
"War Is Soooooo 20th Century"
"Civil War Accomplished in Iraq-Nam"
"Give Impeachment a Chance"
"I'm Already Against the Next War"
"Expose the lies, half-truths, cut and paste rationales for going to
war"
"Mandatory Evacuation of the Bush White House"
And here are some of the voices that go with such signs:
The Soldier and the Machine
Demond Mullins is a 24-year-old student at Lehman College in New York. A
handsome young man in wrap-around shades, he wears a desert camo jacket
with Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) on it. He tells me he was an
infantryman in the Baghdad area from September 2004 to September 2005,
part of a National Guard unit attached to the First Cavalry. He will be
among a relatively modest IVAW group of perhaps 20 to 30 young men who
will lead this demonstration.
"What got me here? I had just returned home and was having a lot of
trouble transitioning back into civilian life. Then one day, a professor
of mine gave me an email for an IVAW event. I met the vets against the
war and it was my first time talking about my experience there. I felt
easy with them.
"I lost friends over there. Here's a bracelet." He briefly brings his
wrist up so that, for a moment, I can see the black band, one of several
bands. "Your unit makes these and the whole unit wears them. In my
battalion, we lost twenty-five guys, but I wear this one because he was
my closest friend there and he died six days before my birthday."
I ask him to let me have a closer look. On it, the band has rank, name
("I don't want you to use his name..."), and "December 1, 2004, KIA,
Baghdad, Iraq" as well as the phrase, "Something to believe in."
"I ran all those missions and I don't know why. I don't know what their
lives and the lives of Iraqi nationals were spent for. I thought they
showed a blatant disregard for human life. I was just tired of being
part of a machine destroying the Earth -- and I'm speaking of the
military-industrial complex. I wanted to be part of a force saving the
Earth."
"My Nephew Died for This?"
Like so many people on this brilliant day, she's wearing sunglasses. She
stands behind the IVAW contingent, part of the startlingly large group
of military families against the war that are leading off this
demonstration. She's Missy Comley Beattie -- she spells it out carefully
for me -- a member of Gold Star Families for Peace. "My nephew was
killed on August 6, 2005 in al-Amariyah. He was a Marine."
She comes from red-state Kentucky, but now lives in New York. She's
wearing a tiny gold peace sign around her neck and a Code Pink T-shirt.
"I write like three articles a day. It's an obsession. I was told
recently that I'm an embarrassment to my [Kentucky] community for my
stance on the war. I won't tell you who said that. But I have my
brother's support. It was his son who died. My mother's a former chair
of the local Republican Party. Now, she's a screaming progressive.
Actually, my mother tells me that things are beginning to change in
Kentucky. She sees a lot more anti-Bush letters-to-the-editor in the
papers than she used to.
"I think that people in the red states are increasingly opposed to Bush.
But to be honest, I suspect it's the rising costs at the pump, not the
human costs that are doing it. It's also that so many people just don't
pay attention and the death rates are always submerged beneath the Ken-
and Barbie-like TV anchors as they talk about the crime of the week. And
keep in mind that Bush doesn't allow people to see the bodies come home.
"When my nephew was little we were close, but now I live here. I talked
to him before he joined the Marines and urged him not to do so. Then I
urged him to join something like the Coast Guard, but he was attracted
to the bravado of the Marine Corps. He'd say to my father, 'Why settle
for second best when you can be best?' I even tried to convince him to
go AWOL.
"Cindy [Sheehan] and I were arrested on March 6, seven months to the day
after my nephew died, and the reason I sat down with the others was
this: My nephew actually went to Iraq because he thought he was fighting
for our freedom. I never believed that, but I sat down because the
police wouldn't even let us walk on the sidewalk to give our petition to
the U.S. Mission to the UN. I thought: My nephew died for this? So I sat
down, spent twenty-two hours in jail, and now here I am."
Released (and Still Raging) Granny
She's 78, has four grandchildren, and was once a preschool teacher.
She's wearing a straw hat covered with flowers and dripping with buttons
("Granny Peace Brigade," "He lied, they died," "Weapons of Mass
Deception," "Keep America Safe and Free"). She has on a "Make Levees,
Not War" T-shirt and she's one of the 18 members of the Granny Peace
Brigade, who protested at a military recruitment center in New York's
Times Square, were arrested, brought to trial for "disorderly conduct,"
and just this week found not guilty by a judge. A hand-made sign she's
carrying says, "Now we're all safe. The grannies were acquitted!"
The eighteen are awaiting their moment as part of the lead contingent in
this antiwar march. She's standing as I approach her and agrees to talk,
but says, "Let me sit down first," and lowers herself gently into the
wheelchair I hadn't noticed right behind her. "I'm a member of the
raging grannies," she begins and then has the urge to explain the
wheelchair. "I had a hip replacement. That's why I'm in a chair. I can
walk a little ways, but not two miles!"
Her name, she tells me, is Corinne Willinger, and she wants the Iraq War
over yesterday. "How do we do it? We get out. I don't see that we're
doing any good there. We haven't prevented a civil war, we've fomented
it!
"I think that the Bush administration is one big mistake and I hope the
people will correct the error as soon as possible. Whatever this
administration touches, they turn it into s-h-i-t. The Yiddish
expression is drech. That includes the aftermath of Katrina, the push to
go into Iran, the treatment of the Palestinians, the fact that the rich
in this country are getting richer and the poor poorer."
She pauses a moment. "There's lots more, but I can't think of any of it
right now." And she laughs in a warm, friendly way.
As for her recent trial, she says, "For me, it was nerve-wracking.
Others took it better. I felt we were doing the right thing and I
thought it important to get as much publicity as possible, but -- I'll
be honest -- I got very nervous. We had heard the judge was fair, but a
stickler for the law and you never know what a verdict is going to be."
I ask about her hopes for the future and she responds, simply enough, "I
hope that we will not have to see any other wars like the ones we've
conducted even before Vietnam -- and all in countries very different
from us. Why do we have to travel to foreign countries to get involved
in business that's not ours in the first place? There has to be a way
for the American people to live without war. We're now so involved in
this war in Iraq and the possibility of going into Iran that we can't
solve our own problems."
Books Not Bombs
The Grannies are just behind us, singing "God Help America," their
version of God Bless America, as we set off with nineteen year-old Aaron
Cole, in a green shirt over blue jeans, carrying a sign that reads
"Books Not Bombs" and another, "Join the Campus Antiwar Network," that
he tells me is his friend's. ("I'm just holding it for her.") He's here,
he says, "on behalf of the hip-hop caucus RYSE," and when I look
bemused, he adds, "Basically, it's my friends over here," and he
indicates two young men with him. "They started the organization at the
University of Maryland. I go to City College, but I'm helping out on
their caucus.
"Young people in many ways have the most power to change the country
because, literally, we are its future. It's young people who are being
killed in Iraq and locked up in large numbers in jails here. The fact
that there's such a lack of awareness and radical activity is a sign
that, as young people, we're not taking responsibility for the country
we're inheriting, or shaping the destiny of our people."
Behind us, the Grannies have just launched another song with the lines,
"We're the Raging Grannies, we're as mad as mad can be..."
"Activism on campus is too low," he continues.
I ask why he thinks this might be.
"Apathy," he says.
"Television," mutters one of his friends.
"To a large extent, it's pop culture, the images the media offers,
bombarding people with values destructive to their well being."
Are his friends here?
"Some are, but a lot of young people won't come to something like this.
There has to be more of an incentive to come down than just an antiwar
protest. That's the truth of it. It can't just be a cause. For whatever
reason, they're not going to come out and show their numbers unless
there's a concert or some kind of entertainment. If it's just going to
be standing around or walking in the street, they're not as likely to do
it. Unfortunately, they'd rather stay home, get high, and watch TV."
Sleepless Nights
She's holding the end of a large banner: "Military Families Speak Out,
Chicago, Illinois." The person at the other end of the banner has
directed me to her. When I approach Ginger Williams and ask if she'd
consider a brief interview, she replies with spirit, "Bring it on!" And
then goes: "Whoops! Maybe that's the wrong thing to say..."
She's 54, wearing a black U.S. Army baseball cap, a Support-Our-Troops
T-shirt and button, and a black backpack. When asked what she does, she
replies, "I'm a nurse, homemaker, mother, protester, whatever you got."
Her son returned from his first tour of Iraq only three days earlier.
"Sean was at Notre Dame and volunteered for Army ROTC after September
11th. He's been in two years, a first lieutenant with the 101st
Airborne. He just served eleven months in Iraq where he commanded
convoys that guarded trucks that are mainly owned by Halliburton. He
wasn't wounded, thank God. We had a lot of sleepless nights.
"I was against the war from the start. My husband was an infantryman, a
Vietnam Vet. He was strongly against it. But my son believes in the
mission. He believes he's there to bring peace and stability to the
region. We disagree but we get along. We raised him to think for
himself -- and he did. He says he's going to volunteer to go back.
"I hope that my son's right, but I think the only chance that things
will end in Iraq is if we get out. We're just inflaming matters by being
there.
"I've been to Fayetteville, to Washington, to Camp Casey. Everywhere I
go, I keep thinking this is going to be the turning point. That march on
Washington in September, then when John Murtha came out against the
war -- Marine, congressman, purple-heart winner. I thought that would be
it. Now, I'm kind of pessimistic really. It doesn't seem to matter what
we do. And you know what I'm really upset with -- all the Democratic
leaders who won't take a stand!
"I confronted [Illinois Senator] Barack Obama at a town-hall meeting and
asked him what he wants us to do. He buys into the idea that there'll be
a slaughter if we get out. I think there's a slaughter now. So I'm
disappointed in him."
I wonder whether anything gives her hope. "Let me think. That's a tough
one." There's a long silence. "Yes, the fall elections. If the Democrats
can win and make Nancy Pelosi speaker, maybe she'll put the war and
withdrawal on the agenda."
Carrying the Flag
Andy Hadel, 47, is in a grey t-shirt, brown slacks, and sandals. He's
carrying an American flag over his shoulder on a silver pole. He
identifies himself as a designer and design teacher.
"There are two reasons I carry the flag. First, one of the principles
our nation was founded on is to dissent when things aren't working. To
speak out is a patriotic function, a high-level of citizenship. Second,
re-appropriating this symbol for those who are antiwar is important.
When you look at Fox News, when you see President Bush, you always see
them wearing American flag lapel pendants. It's become a traditional
image by now to think the flag means pro-war patriotism, so what I'm
trying to do is take the symbol back. I pay taxes. I'm a citizen. In the
act of dissention I believe I'm fulfilling my highest level of citizen's
responsibility.
"I don't know where I got this flag. I've had it for years. I think I
bought it at a flag store. Believe it or not, you don't need a card from
the Republican Party to do that!"
Raising the Dead
The photos -- striking faces, each with a rank, a name, and a place --
are mounted on a cord that stretches for blocks. Almost 2,400 photos
means many, many blocks, and so that cord is held up by scores of people
strung out along its length, living faces to go with the dead ones.
Hermon Darden, pastor of King's Highway United Methodist Church in
Brooklyn, is among them. He's in clerical black and wearing his white
collar. He introduces me to three other men. "He's from Maryland and
they're from southern New England, also from the United Methodists."
Are the holders of this exhibit of the dead all Methodists, I ask, and
the next holder down promptly clears his throat and shows the pin he's
wearing: "Another Quaker for peace."
Darden speaks in the inspiring rhythms of a minister. He's got short,
black hair, and a tiny black mustache flecked with grey. He was lost and
now is found.
"I came looking for the clergy contingent but couldn't find it and these
people welcomed me. They took me in and this is good enough for me,
holding up these names. Probably there is no greater statement that can
be made than to lift up the pictures of these children killed by an
unjust war. Did you know that most of those who died were under
twenty-five. They were the young. A generation is being decimated for a
war that has no foundation or ethical justification. We're simply
fighting to secure oil when we could secure alternative means of energy.
"What we need to do is ensure that our votes actually count. And our
votes cannot count if we can't be sure the machinery used is validated.
We deserve a paper trail and, it seems, neither the Democrats, nor the
Republicans have taken a serious stance about voting machines.
"And then we have to have some honest folk running for office who will
put an end to corporate hustling and exploitation. Halliburton and
Bechtel have been doing this for generations. This is not new. And you
know what else we need? We need more people to take to the streets.
"I also think the media, which is owned by just a few companies, has
kept a lid on protest information. They have not adequately reported
what people such as ourselves feel about the war.
"At my church in Brooklyn, we announced this demonstration for several
Sundays and it was at our [United Methodist] conference website as
well."
"You know," he concludes, "I participated in the Vietnam protests and
unfortunately this is just déjà vu."
The Lieutenant from Okinawa
Ed Bloch ("And don't reverse the first and last names!") at 82 is
undoubtedly not the oldest veteran to be in this demonstration, but he
may be the oldest one walking its length. He wears his soft, khaki
campaign cap and his old Marine officer's jacket, cinched at his waist
with a belt. It has his battle stars and his first lieutenant's bars
from World War II. ("I was a rifle platoon leader in the battle for
Okinawa.")
When I ask whether this could possibly be his wartime jacket, he
replies, "They made the damn uniform of such great material in those
days. It's 61 years old."
It fits him amazingly, though he assures me that a friend "moved the
buttons for me."
The executive director of the Interfaith Alliance of Albany (New York),
he is accompanied by younger friends, but he walks as if alone in this
vast crowd. His step, strangely enough, is both halting and steady. He
progresses at an even pace. He stands ramrod straight, a bearing that
could only be called military and, as it turns out, he carries a burden.
"After the war against Japan ended," he tells me, "the First Marine
Division was sent into China, right into the middle of their civil war,
to work with the Japanese and the Chinese puppets and hold down the
territory for the arrival of Chiang [Kai-shek]'s troops. While I was
there, I committed atrocities. I committed atrocities with the Japanese
on a small Chinese town."
He walks on, his pace never breaking, while I consider this.
Then he says, in a segue that makes great sense if you think about it:
"The reason that [Senator] Ted Kennedy is more honest than most of them
down there is Chappaquiddick. It moved him in the direction of remorse.
It made him understand."
On Iraq, he's clear as day. "Everything I believe screams out that there
is no substitute for peace in a nuclear age. For certain, this continued
war is bringing up the fundamentalists all around the world to do the
suicide attacks and everything else. Our attacks just confirm what their
leaders have told them."
I ask him what he might tell George Bush and his top officials if he had
the chance.
"My immediate instinct is to say, "Drop dead," but I don't think that
sounds very good. The fact is we just have to get out right now. We have
to remove those young people like the ones with whom I served from
harm's way in an imperialist war for oil."
And he walks on alone in the crowd.
Bring My Dad Home
He is eleven years old -- with a friend and the friend's mother. He
stops shyly for just a moment at my request. He is carrying a sign he's
made that says, "Bring My Dad Home. Stop the War."
He admits that this is his first demonstration. ("It feels pretty
cool.") His father, he tells me, in as few words as possible, is
somewhere outside of Baghdad and in the Army Reserves. When asked about
the war his father is fighting, he says: "I think we need to stop the
war because there's no need for it. Oil's not worth blood."
I wonder how his dad feels about this. "I never really asked him," he
replies and heads off with his friend.
Hoosiers for Peace
The three university students have bused in from Indiana for this
demonstration, their first big one. He's in a white T-shirt and a jean
jacket. He carries a "Hoosiers for Peace" sign and a small American
flag. The last thing he expects is to be interviewed and he's
hesitant -- both with his name, "Dave," and with his words. His decision
to come was "a moral stance against the war." No more need be said.
What does he think will happen in this country? "I think George Bush is
going to ride out his term without any kind of consequences," he replies
and stops. Then, after a moment's thought, he adds, "But it's good to be
here to support democracy, to support the right to dissent."
An awkward silence descends as he and his friends fidget, unsure what to
do next. Finally, he adds another thought: "My father's a Vietnam vet
and I'm against war altogether. My father went to the original Gulf War
protests [in 1990] and I'm here now because of the things he's taught me
and for the guys my age who are out there."
Another silence with the hum of the crowd and distant drums behind us.
Finally I ask whether he knows anyone who's actually gone to Iraq. "I
know three guys who were in Iraq."
And what, I wonder, did they tell him about their experiences.
"I never asked them about it, but if it was anything like Vietnam, I'm
sure they don't want to talk about it."
"We Remember Vietnam"
Behind the huge Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW) banner, the
large contingent of vets, with the signature somewhat disheveled look of
their generation, are chanting, "Hey, hey, Uncle Sam, We remember
Vietnam, We don't want your Iraq War, Bring our troops back to our
shore." Bill Perry of Levittown, PA, who anchors one end of the enormous
banner, is wearing a t-shirt and black vest with military unit patches
all over it. He digs into a wallet and hands me his card, which
indicates that he's the National Coordinator of the VVAW.
"I was a paratrooper with the 101st Airborne Division in 1967-68 during
the Tet Offensive just as the mood of the country was beginning to swing
big time. It became quite clear then that the Vietminh -- the Vietcong
the Americans called them -- had the support of the people in the
countryside. Leaving aside the strategic arguments, the economic
arguments, the moral arguments, if the people don't want you and the
people don't need you, there's no need to be there and we're approaching
that moment in Iraq now."
He promptly offers me a micro-history and analysis of the various Shia,
Sunni, and Kurdish groups in fragmenting Iraq. "The whole purpose of
going over there was to break up the country into three countries --
leaving the middle part, where most of the people are, without oil and
making sure the Iraqis more generally lose control over their oil."
What exactly would he do about Iraq, I ask.
"I would immediately withdraw and let the Arab League and the U.N. sort
it out because there's much less animosity against them. Eighty percent
of Iraqis dislike us. Eighty percent of Iraqis are Arabs. That's why the
Arab League makes sense. The Kurds are the twenty percent that embrace
globalism and capitalism. Condi and Rumsfeld want them to succeed.
"I think eventually things will play out, but the problem is the U.S.
wants to retain those fourteen permanent bases of ours in Iraq to
control everything from the Caspian oil that can be pumped to China and
India to the Middle Eastern sources that supply Europe."
The Other Engelhard(t)
I approach the two mothers, each with children in strollers and ask the
nearest if I can interview her. She agrees, but then the other leans
closer, reads the press pass hanging around my neck ("Tom Engelhardt,
Tomdispatch.com"), and says, "I'm an Engelhard too, just without the
final T." So I interview the other Engelhard -- Margaret known as Meg --
at this rally. She's 42, from South Orange, New Jersey. She's with son
Cory ("almost three" and on his father's shoulders) and Jasper, who
rises from his stroller to tell me proudly, "I'm four and a half, almost
five!"
I wonder whether this is Jasper's first demonstration. No, Meg tells me,
she went out with him when we began bombing Afghanistan back in 2001 and
that, she adds, was "his first demonstration -- externally."
She tells me she knew someone who died in Iraq. I ask whether she has
hopes for the political future. "That's a tough question," she says.
"I'm very worried about increased aggression toward Iran. I'm happy
Bush's approval ratings have fallen so low. I feel like less of a
minority than I did three years ago.
"What I hope for is that we would get Democrats elected in the mid-term
elections and so, some sort of resolution from Congress to withdraw. I
can't imagine more than that."
Pink Slipping Bush
She's at the front of the vigorous, dancing, chanting Code Pink
contingent, all of whom wear something pink, including in some cases
day-glo pink wigs. She's holding high a frilly, full-length pink slip on
a pole topped by the sign, "Give Bush a Pink Slip." She herself wears a
pink feathered hat and pink camo-style pants. ("We've done a lot of
counter-recruiting actions.") She's Courtney Lee Adams, a 43 year-old
musician and copyeditor, who first got involved with the group at the
time of the Republican National Convention in New York.
"I was worried that this demonstration wasn't going to be well attended,
so I'm relieved. I was at an event last night and a lot of people didn't
even know this was happening, so I expected the worst.
"Maybe I'm crazy, but I feel encouraged. There's much more mainstream
opposition out there than there was. I'm still immensely disappointed in
the Democrats. I don't understand why they're not riding this momentum
when it's so obviously out there. But to hell with them! Seriously,
we're not waiting for them to act.
"In New York, Code Pink is very focused on pressuring Hillary Clinton.
Bird-dogging her is what we call it. After all, she's our senator. We
want to see the troops come home now, no permanent bases, true
reconstruction, no invasion of Iran. And I'd like to see Bush impeached.
There's another case where there isn't much support among Democrats in
Congress, but there's lots of support for it out there. Isn't it
strange, actually, that it seems like there's more opposition from
old-fashioned conservative Republicans than liberal Democrats?
"The big thing is: No permanent bases in Iraq. This is going to be a
tough one. I'm sure they're going to try to pull some troops out, do the
old bait-and-switch, getting our position in Iraq off the PR screen and
hanging on to those bases. I fear that's going to prove to be a long,
hard fight."
Earphones
He's right at the end of the march, among the last demonstrators. He's
wearing a grey, winter knit cap over his long hair, perhaps fitting for
someone from the chilly state of Vermont. He's 15 years old with a
sweet, open face. His name is Jacob. He's bused down with his older
brother, part of the Central Vermont Peace and Justice contingent and,
though everywhere around him noise wells up and instruments are being
played, he has two large earphones clamped over his ears. When I stop
him for an interview, he's initially unsure, but his friends encourage
him.
It's his first large demonstration. "I came to protest against the war.
I've participated in a bunch of small demonstrations [in Vermont] and I
wanted to go to a major one. It's been fun, exhilarating.
"My second cousin has just gone into the Marines, but I want to get our
troops out as quickly as possible after stabilizing the country first,
because otherwise the lives there would have been lost fully in vain."
As for his thoughts on the Bush administration, "They need complete
reform."
As he's ready to leave, I ask what he's been listening to. He shows me
the CD and says, "It's Oriental Sunshine. I think it's a band from the
seventies, kind of underground music. It has," he says with awe, "a
sitar player." ++
A Clarion Call
Marching for Peace
By MISSY COMLEY BEATTIE
May 1, 2006
http://www.counterpunch.org/beattie05012006.html
Unbelievable! Last evening, on a day when the US death count in Iraq
passed the 2400 mark, George Bush spoke at the White House
Correspondents' Dinner and said, "I'm feeling chipper tonight. I
survived the White House shakeup." April has been the bloodiest month of
2006 with 70 troops killed, but the president, whose lies have caused
endless pain, was feeling chipper. Has the man no shame?
Earlier on Saturday during his radio address, Bush said there will be
"more days of sacrifice and struggle."
That was around the time I headed over for the NYC Peace March. It was
huge with organizers estimating 300,000 people, not to mention those on
the sidewalks giving us a thumbs-up. I saw no signs in support of George
Bush.
Cindy Sheehan, who galvanized the antiwar movement when she traveled to
Crawford to ask George the question heard round the world (for what
noble cause did my son Casey die?) took the front line all the way down
Broadway. With her were Susan Sarandon, Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton,
Faiza Al-Araji, a member of the Iraqi Women's Delegation, and several
Iraq Veterans Against the War. Prior to the long walk, each spoke
against the Bush presidency and demanded immediate troop withdrawal.
The Raging Grannies were there, definitely a force with which to be
reckoned as they celebrated their recent acquittal from charges of
"disorderly conduct." They were arrested in October after attempting to
enlist in the armed services to take the place of our young. And they
were ready to rumble at the march, giving Bush a piece of their wisdom
in song and tongue-lashings.
An event like this evokes many emotions. There's exhilaration from
gathering with thousands who share a demand for peace and justice.
But there's also great pain. And it's nowhere more evident than in the
eyes and hearts of those who are mourning the death of a loved one.
I met a family whose nephew died in the 9/11 attack. They belong to
Military Families Speak Out. With two nephews in Iraq now, they want an
end to war. They've suffered enough.
I recognized Carlos Arredondo, having just read an article about him in
which he was pictured. He held high a poster with a large photograph of
his son Alexander in dress blue uniform, lying in an open coffin. A
small American flag was secured to the top of the poster. Carlos also
carried his son's boots.
Carlos' eyes hold the same pain I see in my brother's. Both men have
lost a son. My nephew, Marine Lance Cpl. Chase Comley, died in Iraq on
August 6, 2005. Alexander, also a marine, died the same month a year
before.
Less than two months after the invasion of Iraq, Carlos saw George Bush
land on the USS Abraham Lincoln and announce and "end to major combat"
underneath a "Mission Accomplished" banner. He was elated, thinking the
war was over and Alexander would be safe. When a military van stopped in
front of his house more than a year later, Carlos rushed outside,
certain that Alexander would step out of the vehicle. Instead, the
messengers of death told him that his son was dead. Distraught, Carlos
ran to the back of his house, picked up a can of gasoline, ran back to
the van and torched it. He was badly burned and had to be hospitalized.
This injury was nothing compared to the pain of losing his child. Carlos
is now a member of Gold Star Families for Peace, an organization which
my brother, sister, parents, and I have joined.
I met others who have found support in GSFP. We embraced and exchanged
information. And we marched. We marched to end this war so that no more
people will hear, "We regret to inform you ..."
At one point when security stopped our movement for a couple of minutes,
we turned and looked back.
The crowd behind us was massive. All the way up Broadway, we could see
people, shoulder to shoulder, a throng of antiwar protesters, united in
a clarion call to the Bush Regime: Peace now. ++
300,000 March in Manhattan at Anti-War Protest
Desmond Butler
Saturday, April 29, 2006 by the Associated Press
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0429-08.htm
NEW YORK -- Tens of thousands of anti-war protesters marched Saturday
through Manhattan to demand an immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops from
Iraq just hours after an American soldier died in a roadside explosion
in Baghdad - the 70th U.S. fighter killed in that country this month.
"End this war, bring the troops home," read one of the many signs lifted
by marchers on a sunny afternoon three years after the war in Iraq
began. The mother of a Marine killed two years ago in Iraq held a
picture of her son, born in 1984 and killed 20 years later.
Cindy Sheehan, a vociferous critic of the war whose 24-year-old soldier
son also died in Iraq, joined in the march, as did actress Susan
Sarandon and the Rev. Jesse Jackson. One group marched under the banner
"Veterans for Peace," while other marchers came from as far off as
Maryland and Vermont.
The demonstrators stretched for about 10 city blocks as they headed down
Broadway. A police spokesman declined to give an estimate of the size of
the crowd, although organizers claimed there were 300,000 people. There
were no arrests.
"We are here today because the war is illegal, immoral and unethical,"
said the Rev. Al Sharpton. "... We must bring the troops home."
Along with their call for the return of the troops from Iraq, organizers
said, the march was meant to express opposition to any military action
against Iran. The event was organized by the group United for Peace and
Justice.
"We've been lied to, and they're going to lie to us again to bring us a
war in Iran," said Marjori Ramos, 43, of Staten Island. "I'm here
because I had a lot of anger, and I had to do something."
Steve Rand, an English teacher from Waterbury, Vt., held a poster
announcing, "Vermont Says No to War."
"I'd like to see our troops come home," he said.
The march stepped off shortly after noon from Union Square, with the
demonstrators heading to downtown Manhattan for a rally at Foley Square
_ between the U.S. courthouse and a federal office building.
The death toll in Iraq for April was the highest for a single month in
2006 before Saturday's fatality. At least 2,399 members of the U.S.
military have died since the war began.
Although that figure is well below some of the bloodiest months of the
Iraq conflict, it marks a sharp increase over March, when 31 American
service members were killed. January's death toll stood at 62 and
February's at 55. In December 2005, 68 Americans died. ++
© Copyright 2006 Associated Press
What's right and good doesn't come naturally. You have to stand
up and fight for it - as if the cause depends on you, because it does.
Allow yourself that conceit - to believe that the flame of democracy
will never go out as long as there's one candle in your hand.
~ Bill Moyers
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