Ann Arbor's the best!

Downtown was rocking from before 3 pm until well after 7 with protests. High school students gathered at their schools at 2 and then proceeded downtown for a mass rally at 3: I saw both the beginning and the end (though not the middle) of their rally; I'd guess there were 300 or so students. About six girls stood across the street holding puny pro-war signs; while I question their sanity and humanity, I have to admire that they stood there for a long time in the face of scorn from their classmates who outnumbered them 50 to 1. Must have watched LOTS of FoxNews to be that brainwashed. One girl from Pioneer High School, my alma mater, told me that they weren't allowed to leave the building for the rally until the school day was over. Minus 1000 points for Pioneer. Community High probably had the best representation, being both the most liberal of the high schools and the closest to downtown.

After the high school rally died out around 4:30, I headed for the Diag at the University of Michigan, where maybe 500 students were gathered to protest the war, countered by maybe 20 warons. Campus cops wouldn't let me sell my T-shirts there; minus 200 points for UM. I then headed back to the Federal Building, where the main protest of the day was scheduled to start at 6 pm. I would guess there were at least 1000 people there by the time the marching part started around 6:20. I sold about 18 shirts by wandering through the crowd, seeing many friends that I have made in just the past few months from my anti-war activities. The march was great; the crowd went down Fourth Street to Washington, Washington to Main, Main to Liberty, and back to the Federal Building. We moved very slowly and chanted very loudly. Pro-warons were almost non-existent. When we arrived back at the Federal Building, candles were distributed and the vigil began, with singing and speeches. Thunder, lightning and rain broke the vigil up about 10 minutes early, but I think everyone was energized and reassured by our community in the face of the horror going on in Iraq.

I think it has given me some direction for what to do next. While I would love for the bombing and invading to stop right now, I'm fairly resigned to the fact that that's not going to happen now. While disgusted by seeing imperial terrorism succeed, it seems as though a quick capitulation by the Iraqi regime at this point may spare the people from the full brunt of "shock and awe," and save U.S. forces from casualties as well. We should still protest the war because it is illegal, immoral and unconstitutional, and Bush should be held to account no matter what the outcome. But I think the place where we can contribute most right now is on the home front. The articles I posted yesterday, one by William Rivers Pitt and the other about red alert in New Jersey depressed me a lot, making me question whether I could continue living in this country. (The drivers who are so rude to me when I ride my bike don't help, either--must be from out of town.) But after the rallies here in Ann Arbor, and seeing how many "Peace" yard signs there are all over town, AND not seeing a single stupid car flag ALL DAY, I'm encouraged that I'm living in a pocket of sanity. Compared to many states, Michigan is relatively sane as well, with two Democratic senators and a Democratic governor, and numerous cities besides Ann Arbor which passed anti-war resolutions and/or civil liberties resolutions. So I'm thinking that my efforts should be focused on local and state government and peace communities working together to guarantee our liberties in the face of Patriot Acts, Homeland Security gestapos, and other unconstitutional goings on at the Federal level. With no intent to sound racist, quite the opposite actually, I suggest that states' rights and local rights be stressed: the Feds will not come into Michigan or Ann Arbor and arrest our immigrants, harrass our protesters, or investigate what we're reading. New Mexico recently passed strong civil liberties legislation along these lines. Ann Arbor has something like it; I think pressing for it on a state level is a doable goal, given that there are large numbers of liberals and libertarians in the state. With a strong commitment from the state in place, we could work more confidently in bringing about the many other political changes necessary in the state and especially the country.

So, thanks, Ann Arbor, for giving me hope!