March 22nd, 2003:
NYC Peace March
I went to the Peace March today, it was
a wonderful coming together of all sorts of people to
protest the war that has been thrust upon us and the world
(and more importantly, the people of Iraq). The weather
was perfect there weren''t any problems with getting quished
or meanie cops (as far as I could see anyway) unlike the
last big NYC peace rally. Everything flowed rather well
and people weren't being corralled. The police presence
for the the most part seemed rather light, most of the
side streets had no one there.
Of course, alot of them are in the Reserves
and are in Iraq right now.
At the end of the march (at Washington Square)
we were told that the count was 1 million people. The
media and cops are reporting different (much smaller)
numbers, so who knows.
I took a bunch of photos and here they are.
I brought over 100 buttons to give out to
people and the very first one I gave out was a "kid
for peace" to a little girl. I asked her and her
parents if they wouldn't mind if I took a picture and
she seemed quite proud to have her photo taken.
I really like giving out buttons, people
just suddenly crowding around me and looking all happy
and intrigued with them. They went pretty fast, and everyone
loved what they said (they were all anti-war/bush buttons
before someone asks again : ). I'm pretty shy so it's
odd for me to do something like that, but everyone was
so nice. Except this one guy who just sorta looked at
them for awhile, took one, and then turned away without
once ever raising his head or saying a word. But that's
just so New York really, I didn't mind.
I rubber-stamped 'mushycat' on the backs
of the buttons so that if anyone was curious they could
probably find me on the web, one girl said, "hey I
just ordered buttons from mushycat the other day".
I was like, "I'm ken!". So Jenn from Troy, hi.
^__^
There were a ton of people playing drums
and buckets and so on, and lots of chanting. Here are
some wav files you can listen to:
one
two
three
four
five
there's also one video that you need the
latest version of quicktime to watch:
one
Yes, Santa was there.
There was a 'glam' group that were just
the coolest.
Radical Cheerleaders. Oh my, I'm so in love
with all of them, including the guy in the skirt and ponytails.
But mainly the girl wearing the pink headband. *swoon*
(sorry) They were so fucking rad.
There are two little movies of them, you
need the latest version of quicktime to watch them:
one
two
A movie theater marquee on the march route.
Nothing quiet about us today.
I like people who don't mince words.
Washington Square. We were told not to hang
around here, because everyone else needed to be able to
march through.
and finally...
on the F train home there was a woman wearing
one of my buttons sitting across from me. neat.
I felt happy at the march, well, not 'happy'
in the usual sense, but surrounded by so many people against
this war I just sorta felt that maybe things can change,
one day. That and the spring air made me feel that pursuing
things is worthwhile. I've been really upset and down the
last few days because of all the goings on you see. So
yeah, definitely a powerful day.
-ken
oh, and despite wearing a 'french kiss for
peace' button and giving out lots of the same, I did not
get a single french kiss. oh well! (yeah like I was gonna!
: )
For some reason while I was writing this,
every time I went to write 'peace' I wrote 'peach'.
