Late Post

For whatever reason, I couldn't post this when I originally wrote it:

As you may know, an antiwar protest is scheduled in Washington, DC for tomorrow [now passed]. Supposedly it will be the largest since the days leading up to the war. Since I happen to live in the city where this protest is being planned, I am conviently able to attend. I haven't been to a protest since 2003, when I attended the antiwar protest in Phoenix, along with about 6,000 other individuals. For Phoenix, not a hotbed of political activism, that is a huge number. Also, on that same day there were over 100,000 protesters in New York and half a million in London, as well as thousands in cities around the nation and the world.

I don't have many illusions concerning how this will suddenly convince our representatives in Congress that the war has been a moral disaster and must be ended ASAP. However, the thing I learned from the previous protest is that the goal is not necessarily only influencing policy. You hope it might do that, and certainly the direct action of the '60s and '70s played some role in ending the war in Vietnam, but even if it has absolutely no effect (like in 2003), it does let the protesters know that they are not alone and isolated. It was easy to feel like you were the only person in the world who thought the United States shouldn't go around invading nations on a whim back in 2003, but after attending the protest, I knew there were thousands of people in my community who thought like I did. They were normal, churchgoing folk, for the most part. Yeah, some college kids (as I was) and some Black Bloc radicals, but mostly just doughy moms and dads and grandparents who thought maybe we shouldn't be dropping bombs on people for no discernable reason, and putting the lives of our own children at risk to do it.

So I'm looking forward to getting out and doing a little chanting, even if it doens't result in immediate policy changes, because the solidarity you feel lets you know there are still a few people who aren't nuts. And who knows, with the war growing increasingly unpopular, perhaps displays like this will matter more. You can always hope. If you're in the area, come out and join us.