I've been trying to figure out how to talk about yesterday and haven't been able to come up with a good starting sentence so far. My experience was so incredible, so up-lifting and reassuring, I just can't put it into words. but I try...
Yesterday morning sweets and I caught the 10:00 train to Grand Central Station so we could be part of the peace demonstration at the UN. There were three trains leaving all at about the same time, and they were packed full. Jam-packed, in fact, with people bundled up in coats and scarves and big winter boots, carrying signs and flags screaming out protest to our terrible president's apparent eagerness to go to war against Iraq.
The train ride is about an hour and forty minutes. It ended up being a little bit quicker, because the conducter realized that everyone on the train was going to the demonstration, and the train was too packed to pick up any more passengers. They made our train an express train, and a third of the way through the trip the decision was made to skip any more stops between Norwalk, CT and NYC.
When we arrived at Grand Central, people streamed out and into the street. A few days prior, the permit to have a peaceful march was denied and protesters were told that they couldn't walk on the street. only the sidewalk, they said. So we poured out of the train station onto the sidewalks and there were police barricading the street so we couldn't even cross the street to get to the other sidewalk.
The train station is at 42nd street. The protest was at 51st St and 1st Ave. Here were three trains full of people from Connecticut trying to get from midtown to the east side. At every cross street there were police barricades, preventing us from moving over to 1st Ave. So we marched north, up lexington. The crow grew bigger. We overpowered a barricade and went east to third street. and then north again, and then east to second, then north and finally, at 69th street, we were allowed onto 1st Ave.
On 1st Ave and 69th, all you could see was people. People were streaming out of every side street attempting to be part of the big protest on first ave. But I can't really do justice to the amount of people that were there in protest. For those of you familiar with Manhatten, imagine that 1st, 2nd and 3rd aves were packed full of people, shoulder to shoulder, from 49th street all the way up to 70th. The photographs don't do it justice. The mainstream press doesn't do it justice. There were people in protest for miles of several miles of street.
We were pushed around and barricaded every step of the way. The police were persistant in assuring that the demonstration was broken up into small groups, in an effort to diminish the apparent massive size of the demonstration.
It was crazy. Even though permits to march were denied, in essence it was a tremendous peace march. Up and down the streets of manhatten, hundreds of thousands of us marched.
Yesterday it was bitter cold. The temperature was below freezing, and there was a razor-like wind blowing around us as we marched. But nobody complained. nobody stopped marching simply because they were cold. We kept moving, kept shouting, kept our spirits warm, which warmed our bodies in turn.
I imagine writing about this is a futile exercise, because you were there also. Everyone was there, walking with us. Internationally, nationally, we were all there.
I have been feeling so overwhelmed with helplessness over this war. I feel like nobody has been there, speaking my opinion that there should be no war with Iraq. Yesterday proved me wrong. Even though the mainstream press downplays the size of the protests, I know that there are millions of people out there who protest this war. I feel a little better now, a little more energized. I'm ready to protest more. Next step is to write letters to my congressperson, to the president even. what do we want? peace. when do we want it? now.
peace.
now.
peace.
now.
peace.
now.