March on the Pentagon

Today was the ANSWER Coalition's March on the Pentagon. Judy and I debated long and hard about attending it, but ultimately we decided to check it out. We both wanted to see Cindy Sheehan, and I have become a button-whore and wanted to get some more.

We got out to the Metro, and since I had decided to bring my sign from the January march, we stuck out a bit. When we hit the platform, a young guy yelled, "Hey! Are you guys going to the rally?" so we went over and introduced ourselves.

Our first anarchist. This guy was serious. I don't know about his friends, but he was preaching to us the whole time about the evils of litter laws, and then suggested that we should invade the Capitol building while the cops had their attention diverted elsewhere.

When the ride was over and we got above ground, we kind of ditched those guys. As I said to my sister, if I'm going to get busted I want it to be on my own accord, not guilt by association. We made our way to the protest site and started picking up all kinds of stuff. It was a free-for-all. We got tons of stickers, buttons, pamphlets, I think Judy may have signed up to become a Socialist at some point, and we were invited to march under a JAMOP flag.

Eventually, we made our way to the staging area, where they were leading chants against the counter demonstration across the street and various speakers made speeches. Cindy Sheehan arrived, which was thrilling, since I just adore her. At one point, she was close enough, I could reach out and touch her.

Eventually, they kicked off the march, and after another 20 minutes of standing around because there were SO MANY people that they couldn't get us moving (which was a good thing), we started on our way. We marched past the counter protestors, but I really couldn't bring myself to get into it with them, since most of them are veterans themselves, and I didn't feel good about shouting or making noise or saying anything disparaging. So I walked along the street and the bridge, raising my fingers in the traditional peace sign, and by the time we were off the bridge, the counter protest had petered out and we were on our own until we hit the Pentagon.

The walk was quite nice, although it was FREEZING COLD outside, and by the time we hit the Pentagon, there were protestors everywhere. Some went up to the soundstage that had been set up in the parking lot. Some were up on an overpass, waving to passing cars. Some congregated on the hills and lawns. And some, like us, turned around and headed back for the Metro. Unfortunately, Judy had to work, so we had to get back.

She just called a few minutes ago to say that she had run into our anarchist friends on her way home from work and one of them had gotten arrested and one of them had been in a scuffle with some of the counter protestors. They were looking forward to an April event, but I think it could be when I'm in Las Vegas, so I'll probably miss that one.

It was a great day and I felt like I was doing something important out there. The crowd was a bit younger than the January march, and we met a lot of nice people in the crowds around us. I have a whole roll of "Impeach Bush" stickers if anyone wants one :-) I'll post pictures as soon as Judy sends them to me. I didn't shoot video this time, I was too freakin' cold.