The pictures and thoughts she sent after the experience are a great glimpse of what’s going on in the country right now. She was impressed by the variety of ages represented. This isn’t a small group of crazy, young liberal protesters, no matter what the media might try to tell (or not tell) us. These are regular people, concerned about a horrible quagmire:
And yet, how to get through to the hard-headed politicians? She gave the go-ahead to share this:
"My impressions of the protest and march are a little mixed. As a grand summary, I'm really glad I went. I think it's important to try to get media attention on citizen opposition to the war and the troop surge. But the feeling of being there was not powerful. I've been trying to figure out why not. I think the biggest reason for it (besides not being a firey-eyed 20-year-old anymore) was that there was no one there to convince. I mean NO ONE.
[It was] 11a on Saturday morning…. No one was at work; no one was at the capitol; no tourists this time of year either. We rode the subway in and it was full..... of peace marchers. Thousands of us just collectively bobbing around the Mall like pecking chickens, showing our wattles to each other. Now I do realize, of course, that this was a media event... but still. “ (Thanks, Susan!)
I thought the chicken owners among you might enjoy that reference. But seriously. What can we do? How will change finally happen? Our lately-more-conservative local paper hardly did a tiny blip on this event, a shame.
It hurts my heart to hear of how bad life has become for regular people (and the troops) over in Iraq. What a mess. What to do?
2 comments:
I went on the bus ride from Ashland to DC back in Jan 04 right before the invasion. I was glad I went and participated, but in the end I really knew we were headed into war anyhow. Since then I have paricipated in a few demonstrations, but I feel somewhat broken after the DC trip.
Hmmm, sorry to hear it didn't feel powerful for you, either. Frustrating, eh?
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