MISUNDERESTIMATION UPDATE
Alert reader J.A. tells TFM that the number of protesters in San Francisco on saturday was "definitely in the 100s of thousands", adding that he had never seen so many people in one place before. Similar sentiments were made to TFM by another alert reader and protester whose initials grace this site daily.
Due to my unfortunate geographical location (nice weather, but hey) I was unable to be in SF for the protest. However, I did watch a significant portion of the DC protest live on CSPAN (they and the major networks did a good job trying to make up for their hideous under-coverage and underestimation of the previous major round of protests, in October). One thing I noticed (a phenomenon certainly present in the SF protest as well) was that there were certain speakers with their own political agendas that were, shall we say, unique from that of averting military action in Iraq. I had a dual reaction to such occurrences. Part of me was annoyed and said things like "OK OK, yes I know that globalization has had, at best, mixed consequences in a lot of parts of the world, but let's keep our eye on the ball here"...
...But then again, another part of me realizes that hey, all people are different and come from different backgrounds, and therefore are going to have large places in their hearts and minds for potentially esoteric, even tangent-ish issues in the scope of an Iraq protest. However, the biggest point of Saturday wasn't necessarily every word that every speaker had to say. I say, look at the sheer numbers of people who were there. Easily a hundred thousand people in DC. More than a hundred thousand people in SF. Thousands in many places across the country. Thousands more in many places around the world -- Japan, France, Germany, South Korea, Russia, ane more. Sure, people are talking about various issues, but they're all in one place, gathered together.
Maybe Bush/Cheney/Rove/Rummy and co. can ignore us. After all, the vast majority of us didn't vote for the Chimp in 2000, and there's no chance in hell we're gonna in 2004. But the American people, turning on their TV's, reading their papers, they can't ignore us. This is about soccer mom's in many ways just as much as it's about Dubya's "Inigo Montoya" instinct.
(and by the way, shame on assholes who prayed for Kent State to reappear. if you love america, then why do you hate americans so much? of course, i don't mind, since you didn't get your wish.)
Alert reader J.A. tells TFM that the number of protesters in San Francisco on saturday was "definitely in the 100s of thousands", adding that he had never seen so many people in one place before. Similar sentiments were made to TFM by another alert reader and protester whose initials grace this site daily.
Due to my unfortunate geographical location (nice weather, but hey) I was unable to be in SF for the protest. However, I did watch a significant portion of the DC protest live on CSPAN (they and the major networks did a good job trying to make up for their hideous under-coverage and underestimation of the previous major round of protests, in October). One thing I noticed (a phenomenon certainly present in the SF protest as well) was that there were certain speakers with their own political agendas that were, shall we say, unique from that of averting military action in Iraq. I had a dual reaction to such occurrences. Part of me was annoyed and said things like "OK OK, yes I know that globalization has had, at best, mixed consequences in a lot of parts of the world, but let's keep our eye on the ball here"...
...But then again, another part of me realizes that hey, all people are different and come from different backgrounds, and therefore are going to have large places in their hearts and minds for potentially esoteric, even tangent-ish issues in the scope of an Iraq protest. However, the biggest point of Saturday wasn't necessarily every word that every speaker had to say. I say, look at the sheer numbers of people who were there. Easily a hundred thousand people in DC. More than a hundred thousand people in SF. Thousands in many places across the country. Thousands more in many places around the world -- Japan, France, Germany, South Korea, Russia, ane more. Sure, people are talking about various issues, but they're all in one place, gathered together.
Maybe Bush/Cheney/Rove/Rummy and co. can ignore us. After all, the vast majority of us didn't vote for the Chimp in 2000, and there's no chance in hell we're gonna in 2004. But the American people, turning on their TV's, reading their papers, they can't ignore us. This is about soccer mom's in many ways just as much as it's about Dubya's "Inigo Montoya" instinct.
(and by the way, shame on assholes who prayed for Kent State to reappear. if you love america, then why do you hate americans so much? of course, i don't mind, since you didn't get your wish.)
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