March 20, 2004
The Portland Global Peace March
I spent a nice afternoon in downtown Portland, Oregon today marching with 8,000-10,1000 other area residents. It was quite a peaceful march. I believe in part because the police kept a much lower profile than other marches I have attended here. They didn't have open pickuip loads of Darth Vader suited "riot " police conspicuously visible, nor following the marchers.
I was impressed by the fact that 128 different organizations in Portland participated and sponsored the events. I saw several local churches and ecumenical groups represented as well as Tikkun and Jews for Justice. Several labor unions were also quite visible, as well as numerous peace and justice groups.
I had the privilege of marching with the NW Vets for Peace and Veterans for Peace. I finally got the opportunity to meet two of the Vets who regularly particiapate in our Uncommon dialogues - Mike and Bill. I wish we had had more of an opportunity to talk, but a march isn't a good coversational backdrop.
There were several drum groups scattered throughout the line of march and I think that really helped keep the energy high. I was pleased to see an array of younger folks there on their own (teens and twenty-somethings), and of course a number of parents brought their children as well.
In listening to the news when I got home. I heard that there were around 100,000 who marched in San Fran, 50,000 in NY, and very large marches across Europe and in Austrailia. I have no idea of the global total of demonstrators coming out for this Global Day of Action for Peace and Justice, but there were over 575 cities around the world with known plans for demonstrations. The only one that truly shocked me was Washington DC where only 8 (yes eight) demonstrators were present with signs outside the White House. I have no idea what happened there.
From reports, this was anexcellent demonstration of the people's voice. Check out Indy Media and United for Peace & Justice for information about the various marches around the world.
Posted by rowan at March 20, 2004 7:16 PM | TrackBack | [eMail this article!] |Ah yes ! I enjoyed meeting you as well and wished we had more time to talk. I must admit I did feel a strange sense of futility as I marched this time. In previous demonstrations I actually had hope that we could prevent getting into this quagmire.
Then today I was watching C-Span only to learn that Sean Hannity's book has made NY Times No 1 Bestseller "Deliver us from Evil" associating terroism with liberalism, well just to make sure I looked up the word liberaliism, I always thought I knew what it meant, but the way it is used these days I thought I had better check again, reccomend everybody do so...and yes I am still a liberal as opposed to it's opposite.
On a brighter note, this demonstration had significantly more veterans participating, I was dissapointed the news media seemsed to miss this, but I must admit the news media never seems to give "fair and balanced reporting" to my point of view...so it goes.
PEACE
Posted by: Bill Whitlatch at March 21, 2004 2:16 PM