speak truth to power

I’ve grabbed the power to say whatever I want to who I want, temper tanturms or no. Also, I blog.

was unlike any I had previously joined in terms of the diversity of people attending. There’s been a lot made of the fact that this peace movement includes many, many mainstream folks as well as the expected lefty, progressive types (like me).

There were demonstrations within demonstrations as various groups put together costumes and props for performances of political street theater. One very effective one was a group bearing dozens of flag-draped “coffins” fashioned from pasteboard and actual flags. This one was to highlight the fact that the American government has prevented people from meeting the planes of the returning dead or ever seeing or photographing the ritual return of the same flag-draped coffins. The government has in general tried to minimize the recognition of the individual sacrifices and individual grief.

The reaction has been that the media and individuals have been moved to name all the names at readings and in galleries of photos in the newspapers and on broadcasts. Protesters have lined up sets of military boots to represent each death or to plant fields of crosses to provide a graphic way to begin to comprehend the lives lost.

The men and women serving are dehumanized by numbering them as “troops” and their deaths are mentioned, if at all, as “casualties.” I discipline myself when I hear these words to repeat to myself, “persons,” or “individuals” and “deaths.”

Washington DC is not a large city—under a million in the city proper, I believe 3-4 million in the metro area. Still it is amazing to me to happen to run into great friends at an anti-war rally. This is some of them—I didn’t make everyone stand together for the group photo. The photo is by the Washington Monument just before the march.

-or more, I hope.

On Saturday, I’ll head down to the Ellipse, that patch of grass just south of the White House in Washington DC to stand with Cindy Sheehan and many many others in protest of the war in Iraq. I admit, while my orientation is to be pacifist, to protest, especially in light of the recent actions of the U.S. government, I am caught up in the momentum of this snowball, where people who got rowdy over Vietnam are getting together with soccer moms, gold star families, and post-gen-x children, who always knew it was time to be about something lacking only this nascent movement to provide context, and the rest of us left-wing/progressive types who have been quietly seething over what was taken from us 5 years ago, when we only had half a loaf to begin with.

Who would have guessed it would be a grieving mother who would give legs to a movement that has been building but gone largely unnoticed over the entire course of the war. I don’t know if it is Ms. Sheehan’s leadership and courage that have turned up the volume or if the poignancy of her story has finally made the anti-war movement worthy of television coverage. Whether it’s what she’s done or who she is, I am grateful for her.

I hope for a great turnout. I’ve got my comfortable shoes and sunscreen at the ready.