Loose Leaf Notes

Have you ever been to a peace march or felt strong enough about something to protest?

I was against the invasion of Iraq from the beginning. I followed the first Gulf War and the devastating effect the sanctions had (primarily on children) intently, and I wrote political commentaries on the subject. I never thought Saddam had weapons to the degree that the Bush administration insisted they did, and I never believed that Iraq was an immediate threat. I participated in two Peace Marches on Washington DC to protest the rush to war. The first was in October of 2002 followed by another in January. Below is an informal article I wrote that appeared in “The Museletter,” the Floyd community forum that I co-edit, about the January march.

There were 30 buses from the Boston area, where I am originally from, and I must have radar for those folks because I kept running into them. I was shocked to discover that a “Hull Times” reporter from the small town I grew up in was there. He interviewed me for the Hull newspaper and recorded me reading my Christmas poem, Dream for President Bush for the Hull cable TV station (“Hi, Mom and Dad!)…I want President Bush to have a dream… like the one that Ebenezer Scrooge had…I want him to be haunted by the ghosts of Iraqi children who cry out, “But mankind was your business…

I wore my friend Jayn’s green down parka and held a sign that said “Pre-emptive Strike is Invasion.” I marched with my husband, Joe, and my son Josh, who came up from Asheville, N.C. with a group of friends. We hooked up via cell phone with some other Floydians and Blue Mountain School alumni, and used our camcorder to interview people, capturing the diversity and huge numbers of those who came out to march.

Everything from the great parking space we got, and the hot tea that was had along the marching route made the day seem almost magical to me. I heard Ron Kovic (Vietnam Vet that the movie “Born on the 4th of July” was based on), a member of British Parliament, Congressman John Conyers, Jessie Jackson, Elizabeth McAlister (Peter Berrigan’s wife) speak passionately at the pre-march rally. I met actress Jessica Lange and former congresswoman Cynthia McKinney and gave them both a copy of my poem… I want his mouth washed out with soap…every time he says “weapons of mass destruction…” and for him to wear a Darth Vadar helmet if he ever says “the axis of evil” again… Read the article in its entirety…

I don’t care if you call it a “peace movement” or an “anti-war movement.” I don’t care if those who participate agree on everything or not. The point is that we all came together because “Iraq represents no threat today to national security that warrants a pre-emptive strike,” as stated by Retired Vice Admiral Jack Shanahan in a recent full page ad in the Washington Post that was organized by Republicans and business leaders.

And we came in droves. Organizers of the march put the number of protestors at a half million. Although most mainstream media tend to downplay protestor numbers, the Washington Post said this: The first marchers stepped off at 1:30 pm and when many had begun to reach the navy yard (end of the march) more than two dozen blocks away about an hour later, others were still leaving the site.” “It’s the biggest one we’ve had in recent times,” DC police chief said.

The Post continued:  This is a diverse mainstream movement, make no mistake. There was a group who had lost loved ones in 9/11 marching and organized labor showed up in greater force than it has to any peace protest to date, with 20 buses from the New York City hospital workers’ union, 1199, and six from Chicago’s teachers union – perhaps the fruit of the dozen or more anti-war resolutions union locals have passed in recent months.

And the New York Times said this: The protestors are diverse, decentralized and disagree on some issues. They include long time pacifists, Persian Gulf War veterans, people who think President Bush stole the 2000 election, people who voted for him, kids with purple hair, CEO’s labor organizers, academics, churchgoers, and even the inevitable soccer mom… In San Francisco, where a similar march was held, there was “a caravan of environmentalists in electric cars with signs that read, “Go solar, not ballistic,” and the Stroller Brigade, a group of Bay Area parents pushing their children through the crowd.

Judging by the outpouring, it seems there is good momentum for the peace movement in this country and throughout the world as more and more people become educated to what is happening and more and more excellent stuff is being written (I spend about an hour a day online reading it) exposing the dangers of the Bush administration’s policies. But, unfortunately, I don’t believe it will matter. I believe their minds are made up. Iraq will be bombed if they have weapons and bombed if they don’t. Bush continues to spout war rhetoric, undermine the inspections, alienate our long term allies, and make deals with new allies who support the U.S. out of fear or because they are being compensated to.