Marchers united for peace

We knew it would be cold in Washington, D.C., and we knew it would be a big demonstration if Maine alone was sending 12 buses with more than 600 people, to protest the impending invasion of Iraq. We knew for every woman, man and child of us there were at least 10 we each represented who could not come.

We could see on our bus the range of ages: from octogenarians to pre-teens. People from all walks of life, all races and ages, came to the streets of our nation’s capital. Many were braving the sub-freezing temperatures and two long nights of aching discomfort on bus seats for their first-ever protest demonstration. I began to poll people, “Why this time for the first time?” The reply was often “because things are worse than ever” or “we have to show Bush that we do not support his war.” Sometimes simply, “I don’t want World War III.”

Others, like me, were veterans of the Vietnam-era anti-war movement, feeling a tinge of deja vu, knowing we helped stop that war with our throngs of a half million and more on the same streets we headed for now. We also knew that thousands of body bags had come back from that war before our numbers grew large enough to make a difference; that thousands more of our brothers and sisters came back broken in mind and spirit, or drug addicted, or maimed forever. Can we stop this war before it starts?

As for doing the numbers, our bus driver recognized eight buses just from New Bedford, Mass., and commented that he thought every bus in every state in New England was on the road. Another bus driver took the time to count buses in Washington, as only a bus driver could do, and came up with 7,000. With an average of 50 people per bus, that’s 350,000 just on buses. Add whatever you think for those who flew in and drove in, add whatever you think – because the media under reported it, as it always has for these massive turn-outs that protest our government policies.

I can tell you that it was a sea, an ocean of people, so densely packed that one could hardly move. Those with cameras could not use them, so impossible was it to see beyond a few feet at the rally. Speaker after speaker held us in the grip of focused energy, led us in booming chants, “No Blood for Oil,” “No More War,” and ticked off the Bush administration’s conscious dismantling of our democracy, our civil rights, our environmental protections, and our safety nets for the unemployed, the homeless, the poor.

Similar protests were happening all over the world on that day: 33 countries, including France, Germany, Italy, Brussels, England, Egypt, Canada, Sweden, Spain, Antarctica; while San Francisco drew hundreds of thousands on the West Coast. Former Attorney General Ramsey Clark laid out constitutional grounds for impeachment of the president, and announced a movement is gaining, and has a Web site in the works (impeachbush.org). Only one U.S. representative, John Conyers from Michigan, spoke or was present to hear the anger and frustration and determination that rose like smoke from a fire in the frigid air.

Before the last words from Jesse Jackson rolled off the platform, the march began. It was the longest march I have ever participated in, along Pennsylvania Avenue to the Washington Navy Yard. There’s no way I could know how long, except for the ache in my legs and the changing neighborhoods, and the endlessness of the four-lane wide stream of people. We would stop from time to time to watch the spectacle, but it was so massive that no single view could take it in. There seemed to be no beginning and no end.

Hundreds of Veterans For Peace marchers reminded us once again of the reality and the costs of war. Marching bands, dancing doves, drums and drummers of all sizes, signs beautiful and profane flowed by: “Empty War Heads: Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld”; “War on Iraq Will Not Solve the Problems in the USA”; “Axis of Evil: Poverty, Racism, War”; “War is Terrorism”; “How Many Iraqis Must Die for Cheap Oil?”; “Regime Change Starts at Home.”

Without warning, a high-pitched, wild keening would roll in wordless waves of exuberance through and over and beyond us, catching like grass fire, ignited sometimes from the front or back of the march or even in our midst. We knew we were smashing the myth of popular support for this war. We had created a critical mass : we saw it, felt it, heard it, were it.

Now home, I try to believe we made a difference, but as Steve Burke, who organized many of the buses from Maine, said, “None of us know if we have made a difference, but at least we did something.” We had joined the long stream of protesters throughout history, throughout the world, who, abandoning the comforts of routine, came together to create a massive presence of protest at the seat of power.

We took our place again in the endless struggle for peace and justice, to celebrate that struggle, and to keep it alive. The United States would still be a British colony if it were not for protesters. Now it is up to us to stop Bush’s pre-emptive colonization of Iraq. Another protest is planned for New York City on Feb. 15. Check out www.unitedforpeace.org.

Nancy Galland is a member of the Maine Global Action Network, and lives in Stockton Springs.