Demonstration Is Largest in Capital Since U.S. Military Invaded Iraq

[YOSHIE FURUHASHI <furuhashi.1@xxxxxxx>]

The September 24th demo was big and everybody from Columbus 
(we organized two 57-seat buses, and many others drove or flew) 
was happy! I marched with my friends Connie and Zaineb, my 
partner Mark being unable to get a day off on Saturday and having 
to wage-slave back home (he'll be joining me in DC today!).  
Connie and Zaineb were armed with digital cameras, so, during and 
after the march, we oohed and aahed over their pix!

The best speakers, IMHO, were Cindy Sheehan, George Galloway, 
and Curtis Muhammad of Community Labor United in New Orleans.

BTW, this time, I chose creature comfort over networking and 
checked into Mariott at 1331 Pennsylvania rather than crashing at a 
friend's (or a friend of a friend's).  A hot shower, a king-size bed, a 
margarita, and a view of the Washington Monument from your 
room have a way of improving your protest experience greatly!

And I woke up today and picked up the Washington Post delivered 
to the door.  A big front-page article of the demonstration 
yesterday (side by side with an article on Hurricane Rita) says, 
“Anti-war Fervor Fills the Streets: Demonstration Is Largest in 
Capital Since U.S. Military Invaded Iraq”: 

<blockquote><http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/
article/2005/09/24/AR2005092401701.html?sub=AR>

Antiwar Fervor Fills the Streets
Demonstration Is Largest in Capital Since U.S. Military Invaded Iraq
By Petula Dvorak
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, September 25, 2005; A01


Tens of thousands of people packed downtown Washington 
yesterday and marched past the White House in the largest show of 
antiwar sentiment in the nation's capital since the conflict in Iraq 
began.

The demonstration drew grandmothers in wheelchairs and babies 
in strollers, military veterans in fatigues and protest veterans in 
tie-dye. It was the first time in a decade that protest groups had a 
permit to march in front of the executive mansion, and, even 
though President Bush was not there, the setting seemed to 
electrify the crowd.

Signs, T-shirts, slogans and speeches outlined the cost of the Iraq 
conflict in human as well as economic terms. They memorialized 
dead U.S. troops and Iraqis, and contrasted the price of war with 
the price of recovery for areas battered by hurricanes Katrina and 
Rita. Riffs on Vietnam-era protests were plentiful, with messages 
declaring, "Make Levees, Not War," "I never thought I'd miss Nixon" 
and "Iraq is Arabic for Vietnam." Many in the crowd had protested 
in the 1960s; others weren't even born during those tumultuous 
years.

Protest organizers estimated that 300,000 people participated, 
triple their original target. D.C. Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey, 
who walked the march route, said the protesters achieved the goal 
of 100,000 and probably exceeded it. Asked whether at least 
150,000 showed up, the chief said, "That's as good a guess as any.

"It's their protest, not mine. It was peaceful -- that's all I care 
about," Ramsey said.

The protesters rallied at the Ellipse, then marched through a misty 
drizzle around the White House and along Pennsylvania Avenue 
NW. The crowd thinned as events continued into the evening with a 
concert on the grounds of the Washington Monument that featured 
Joan Baez and other performers, along with antiwar speeches.

The police presence along the demonstration's route seemed more 
relaxed than at recent protests, although D.C. police and U.S. Park 
Police had hundreds of officers in place to deal with potential 
trouble. Police said a construction fence was torn down and a 
newspaper box damaged, but they reported no injuries or major 
problems. They said three people were arrested -- one on a charge 
of destruction of property, one on a charge of attempted theft and 
one on a charge of disorderly conduct.

More than 200 counter-demonstrators set up outside the FBI 
building on Pennsylvania Avenue, and some back-and-forth yelling 
occurred as the antiwar marchers moved past. "Shame on you! 
Shame on you!" one counter-protester shouted at the antiwar 
group. Several dozen officers stood between the two groups, and 
no trouble erupted, police said.

Some organizations supporting the war in Iraq plan to demonstrate 
today on the Mall.

Antiwar groups staged smaller rallies yesterday in Los Angeles, San 
Francisco, Seattle, London, Rome and other cities. In Washington, 
the events were sponsored by groups including the ANSWER 
Coalition and United for Peace and Justice and focused on a 
succinct theme: "End the War in Iraq and Bring the Troops Home 
Now."

Roughly 147,000 U.S. troops are in Iraq. Since the war began in 
March 2003, 1,911 U.S. members of the military have been killed 
and 14,641 have been wounded.

The protest groups helped organize caravans and carpools, and 
many participants began arriving early in the morning after bumpy, 
all-night bus rides.

Leslie Darling, 60, came from Cleveland with four friends and said 
it was her first antiwar protest. She said she was moved by what 
happened after Hurricane Katrina.

"It made clear that while we spend all this money trying to impose 
our will on other countries, here at home in our own country, we 
can't take care of each other," she said.

When the bus coming from Kalamazoo, Mich., pulled up to 
Freedom Plaza on Pennsylvania Avenue, Sister Maureen Metty, 56, 
stretched her legs and prepared for a brand-new experience.

"There were 250 sisters who wanted to be here today, but I'm the 
one they chose to send," she said. She carried a sign that read 
"Sisters of St. Joseph's for Peace," a folding stool and a backpack 
with snacks, her toothbrush and toothpaste. She snapped a flurry 
of pictures for the sisters back home, took a deep breath and 
headed into the crowd.

People came to the Mall and Ellipse in waves. Organizers said that 
several thousand never got there because of an Amtrak breakdown 
on the New York-to-Washington line in the morning. Others who 
took Metro faced delays because of repairs on the Yellow and Blue 
lines.

Once protesters arrived, they joined throngs headed toward the 
rally on the Ellipse, which featured numerous speakers, including 
the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, actress Jessica Lange and Cindy Sheehan, 
the California woman who drew thousands of demonstrators to her 
26-day vigil outside Bush's Crawford, Tex., ranch last month and 
was the inspiration for many protesters yesterday. Her son, Casey, 
24, was killed in Iraq last year.

"This is amazing!" Sheehan said. "You're part of history."

Some of the biggest applause went to someone not even on the 
program. Adam Hathaway, an 8-year-old who became lost while 
mingling in the crowds. Before he was separated from his mother, 
Adam was showing people his jar of pennies and proclaiming that 
"President Bush is taking lots of this and using it in the war."

Several announcements were made seeking help in finding the 
blond boy from Maine. He was reunited with his mother, Julia 
Hathaway, as the crowd cheered.

Bush was not around to hear the protesters filing past the White 
House. He spent the day at command centers in Texas and 
Colorado, where he assessed Hurricane Rita recovery efforts. Vice 
President Cheney was undergoing surgery at George Washington 
University Hospital to treat aneurysms on the back of his knees.

Bush and Cheney were depicted on posters, T-shirts and in 
makeshift costumes. Several demonstrators wore masks of Bush's 
likeness and prison jumpsuits. They were often asked to pose for 
photographs.

Many protesters said they had opposed the action in Iraq all along 
but were emboldened to demonstrate after polls showed that a 
majority of Americans disapprove of Bush's handling of the war.

The masses on the street served up a broad cross section of the 
United States by age, geography religion and ethnic group. The 
Raging Grannies, Presbyterians for Peace, Portuguese Against Bush 
and a group of Quakers were there. The Buddhist Peace Delegation 
took up most of 14th Street NW with its golden banner that read: 
"May all beings be safe and free from anger, fear, greed, dilution 
and all ill being."

Protest organizers made special note of military participants in the 
antiwar effort.

Army 1st Sgt. Frank Cookinham, with a Special Forces patch on one 
shoulder, scorpion tattoos crawling across the back of his neck and 
"LOCO" permanently inked on his Adam's apple stands out in most 
crowds. He was pretty uncomfortable yesterday.

"I've never done this before, but here I am, in uniform, figuring this 
is the only way I can shove it to Bush," said Cookinham, of 
Newport, R.I., a Persian Gulf War veteran who recently returned 
from a second tour in Iraq. "This war makes no sense."

Marching past the Treasury Building, Steven Olsen, 57, and his 
wife, Brenda, 49, of Yonkers, N.Y., held signs bearing a photo of 
their son, an Army Reserve sergeant sent to Iraq after enrolling in 
medical school.

"I hear from him about once a month," said Brenda as her husband 
gently waved a placard that said, "Proud of my soldier: Ashamed of 
this war."

Staff writers Karlyn Barker, Jo Becker, Susan Levine, David 
Nakamura, Robert E. Pierre, Amit R. Paley and Del Quentin Wilber 
contributed to this report.</blockquote>

Yoshie