f r e s h s t a r t

Sunday, March 30, 2003

 

The New England wide United for Justice with Peace rally in Boston was yesterday. I stayed at Dori's the night before, although I hadn't planned on it, so I was wearing the clothes I had worn all day Friday and had then slept in. Her friend Steph came over and we walked to the T. The train filled up with a mix of regular folks and those holding signs and flags. We brought some posterboard to the steps of the Temple across the street from Boston Common where Maria was waiting with markers. A man wearing a beret and smoking a cigarette was selling french bread. A guy stopped by to hand out cards with instructions on how to deal with the police. We crossed the street (at the crosswalk) and joined the steady flow of people heading to the other side of the Common. We walked up a hill toward the sound of loudspeakers, where we could see a large crowd standing. When we crested the hill and looked down we saw where the real crowd was, in the huge field down below. We made our way down and listened to speakers and poets, watched a group of Palestinian dancers, read pamphlets that were thrust into our hands, signed in with the rally organizers so that they could contact us in the future. A group of musicians and Bread and Puppet gave the beginning of the march a festival feeling. Early on in the march we were in kind of a quiet section. No drums, no chants. A man walking next to me struck up a conversation.


old guy: Did you make your sign?
me: Yes. (I show it to him)
old guy: That's a good one. I found this one laying around, but I like what it says. Someone should start a chant. I like Drop Bush, Not Bombs.
me: Do you want to start it?
old guy: Yeah. Okay, DROP BUSH!
me: NOT BOMBS!
crowd around us: DROP BUSH! NOT BOMBS!


After I recovered my voice Sarah and I started up "1-2-3-4, we don't want your oil war, 5-6-7-8, stop the bombing, stop the hate." A little boy who looked to be about eight started up several chants later on, which was really cute.
People watching from their porches and windows were mostly supportive, flashing peace signs and cheering. A group of angry-looking construction workers stood on a balcony with a sign that said "Support our Troops". We chanted "support our troops, bring them home!" in response.
At the end of the march we laid down in the middle of the street for a die-in. The Boston Globe article reported attendance at 25,000, but organizers estimated it at over 50,000.
A lot of people think that protesting is futile, that it won't stop the war. It is true that the simple act of marching down the street may not get Bush to pull our troops out of Iraq, but there's more to it than that. Protests get media attention. Folks are interviewed at them and alternative viewpoints are given a voice. People are inspired by them. Will they be inspired to call the White House, call their senator, write a letter to the editor, talk to their friends and neighbors about the war, join a community group, organize a peace vigil, put up posters in their local coffee shop? I take comfort in the fact that others are enraged and saddened by our government's behavior, and that they're making their feelings known.

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