There were rallies across the United States and around the world over the weekend commemorating the third anniversary of this war. The Washington Post has a photo essay of shots here. But let’s get local for a sec. The shot at left is a panorama of Binn’s Park in downtown Lancaster, PA where I was at a rally/march with Senate candidate Chuck Pennacchio [and I got to meet jpol as well!]. An estimated 700 people marched through the state’s tenth largest city in this event organized locally by Lancaster Peace and Justice Coalition.
Sunday night I was back in Philadelphia for a candlelight vigil organized by United for Peace and Justice with about 150 people braving some serious cold and wind.
suskind recounts what went down in Sacramento. Cali Scribe shares a poem, ilona has a roundup of news outlets talking about the growing number of troops coming back with PTSD.
We are not alone. It is this administration that is out of line and out of touch, not the majority of Americans in big cities, farm towns, eCommunities and citizens of the rest of the world. What went down in your neck of the woods?
There was a vigil last night in Alexandria, Virginia. I only found out about it because I got an email from Jim Webb’s Senate campaign. They were going to be collecting ballot signatures. I’m not supporting Webb, but I went to the vigil.
I suck at estimating crowds, but I would guess 100-150 people were there. This included a number of elected officials. The mayor of Alexandria spoke. Congressman Jim Moran spoke. Cindy Sheehan, too, and many others. An Iraqi-American student talked about someone who verbally attacked her on the Metro. And Tom Paxton led some songs. They read out the numbers of people who had died from different places of Virginia and marked them on a map. Then the same, for Iraq: the numbers of Iraqi civilians who died.
What I remember most though was what Jim Moran said. I liked that he was there. He talked about the choice faced by his generation, on Vietnam: volunteer? wait to be called? resist? He said it was up to us to make a change. Our responsibility. That we were the only ones who could. That made me angry. Justified or not, I don’t know, you tell me. But powerful men have worked so long and hard these many years to keep us from wielding even the smallest bits of power. To keep us from having a say. To keep us from changing anything. Then to have him stand there and tell us it’s up to us, when he and his esteemed colleagues have the power.
I like Jim Moran and I don’t suppose it is really him that I’m angry at, but that made me angry.
Estimating crowds is a tough one. I’ve been trying to get into the habit of counting crowds wherever I go to get a better sense of numbers. Counting a group of ten and then counting off groups of ten is usually how I go about it. After awhile, you can get a sense of what 50, 100, 200 people look like.
Great to hear that there were elected officials out there with you. It’s important to see their constituents in the flesh and learn how they feel about the matters at hand. There weren’t any elected officials at the Sunday night vigil in Philly that I could see, but we did have Dante Zappala, the younger brother of Army Sgt. Sherwood R. Baker, the first Pennsylvanian to be killed in armed combat since WWII and son of Gold Star Mom Celeste Zappala. He said some touching words.
I don’t know Rep. Moran from a hole in the wall, but I think it’s at least good that he came out to an anti-war vigil. Maybe he’s recognizing the power of the people to show up en masse. But maybe he’s just bullshitting to the choir. When the media consistently underreports the numbers of these large gatherings home and abroad, it certainly deflates our efforts a bit.
Thanks for posting the powerful poem.
for sharing the link to the poem — since I was ill and couldn’t go march, it was my small contribution to the events of the weekend.
And of course it sunk like a stone at the Orange Empire… :shrug:
thank you
happy to help it percolate to the top here at the green 🙂
It was great meeting you Albert!
In addition to the roughly 700 marchers here in Lancaster (up from an estimated 500 last year), there was a town hall meeting and a candlelight vigil. It is likely that more than 1,000 people participated in the three events. This is supposed to be a conservative, Bush-loving community, but things they are a changin.
oh man, that’s a great shot of great costumes!