We Are The Majority: Impeach Bush

http://bingfutch.blogspot.com/2005/09/we-are-majority-impeach-bush.html

Dusk is settling upon Seattle, Washington as I type these words from our fourth-floor room at the Vance Hotel, downtown. Jae and I flew in this morning; sort of a working vacation, yet I knew we were arriving on a day that would see national anti-war protests and rallies taking place across the country, the most high-profile gathering taking place in Washington D.C. I noted that one of the listed rallies was scheduled to occur in Seattle at Westlake Park, not far from where we were staying. Sure enough, as we rode in from the airport this morning, our driver passed right by the park.

It was a stunning sight. Just about every inch of the space was filled with bodies, holding signs, pumping fists, milling about, most of them facing a stage where angry voices projected out over the crowd. Tired from the five-plus hour flight, we nevertheless checked in at the hotel, our room was not yet ready, stored our luggage with the concierge and then walked six or seven blocks (after grabbing a couple of venti-sized coffees from one of the ubiquitous Starbucks outlets that seem to be everywhere here)to where the event was taking place.

Seattle police were stationed around the perimeter of the park, but they didn't seem to be geared-up for threatening or quashing, merely stood around by their vehicles and bicycles, talking from behind dark sunglasses or making cel phone calls. After wading into the sea of protesters, the word seemed to be that the D.C. rally had drawn an astounding number of attendees (the first estimate was "one million", which sounded incredible, and as it turns out, was about 700,000 too many, at least as of this writing.) The crowd was fired up by a number of speakers (I ran videotape, but on two hours of sleep, am just too bleary-eyed to review it for clips and quotes at the moment)who spoke to different agendas, from the black vs. white/poor vs. rich debate that sprung out of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita to the Palestinian rights issues borne out of the alliance between the U.S. and Israel. Throughout it all, the debacle that is Iraq, our era's Vietnam, was a bloody red thread that tied the speeches and musical performances together. The signs, in all of their colorful variety and inventiveness said it. The t-shirts, buttons and wildly imaginative costumes shouted it. The shouts, screams and cheers of the people sealed it with defiant certainty. George W. Bush is a criminal, they said. The war in Iraq is a war of aggression, they cried. Bring our troops home, because they are dying for lies and killing innocents for no good reason whatsoever, they demanded.

"Impeach Bush!", was the overwhelming consensus at Westlake Park in Seattle today. And those that did not stop to join the throng, honked their horns and pumped their fists and flashed peace-signs in solidarity as they drove past.

I picked up a t-shirt from the Not In Our Name Project that spoke to me. A picture of Earth on the front with the legend "War Without End? Not In Our Name" was matched with text on the back which read:

Not in our name
will you wage endless war
there can be no more deaths
no more transfusions of blood for oil

Not in our name
will you invade countries
bomb civilians, kill more children
letting history take its course
over the graves of the nameless

Not in our name
will you erode the very freedoms
you have claimed to fight for

Not by our hands
will we supply weapons and funding
for the annihilation of families
on foriegn soil

Not by our mouths
will we let fear silence us

Not by our hearts
will we allow whole peoples or countries
to be deemed evil

Not by our will and Not in our name

We pledge resistance
We pledge alliance with those
who have come under attack
for voicing opposition to the war
or for their religion or ethnicity

We pledge to make common cause
with the people of the world
to bring about justice, freedom and peace

Another world is possible
and we pledge to make it real

Jae and I scooted our way through whatever openings we could find, which sometimes meant hanging out until a clearing became available, the concentration was so thick. We talked with quite a few folks who felt that change was truly taking place today - people who had been staying current with events in Iraq, Afghanistan, New Orleans, Crawford and Houston. People who knew that there was no going back to being complacent and defeated, who knew that the time was now to seize a moment where the national dialogue was focused on the deceptive practices of the current administration and whether or not we wished to stand for the bullshit any longer. We talked with angry twentysomethings and stalwart grandmothers, saw whole families marching together and witnessed armed service veterans in full uniform proclaiming that Bush was a dangerous man who needed to be removed from office. There was no pro-war representation - the cops remained non-threatening.

After shooting much video and snapping many pictures, picking up some bumper stickers, buttons and info-sheets from a variety of organizations, Jae and I left the rally to continue our day together, but came back to the hotel and immediately switched on the t.v.; one, to get news on Hurricane Rita and what damage had been done and two, to get online and find out the actual scope of today's nationwide anti-war engagement.

I was relieved to see that Rita had lost some of her bite, and reports are still coming in. Tough to get coverage what with the weather still being aggressive out there and there wasn't much in the way of hard news; just a lot of 'stupid reporter tricks' and drama that turned us right off. Moving on to the protests, especially after turning on C-SPAN to watch some of the replays, it began to shape up that the Washington D.C. rally was a monster. Bigger than CNN had originally reported (according to What Really Happened, they initially reported the gathering as 10,000 people, then later revised the number to 100,000, though it appears as if more than 300,000 showed up, and reports are still coming in.) The photos are painting a picture of extreme activism in action. Cindy Sheehan, who has become the galvanizing figure in the anti-war effort, addressed the crowd and stated "we are not going away!"

The A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition put up a link that would allow those unable to join the nationwide protests to make their voice heard, further empowering the movement that is gaining strength and momentum - a political hurricane whose only damage aims to be the removal of Bush and his cronies from office. Mainstream media, normally loathe to aid dissent against the government, actually lent steam to this weekend's events by reporting on how the Bush administration was handling the outcry, which was basically the same way that they handled the recent hurricanes: poorly. ABC News even seemed to give choice sound bites to the cause. Capitol Hill Blue and The New York Times took matters a step further and shed some light (pun totally intended) on how Der President was scrambling to look in-control while running from the impending protest in search of choice hurricane photo-ops that simply didn't cooperate. It's hard to look decisive and determined in the face of disaster when the sun is shining, apparently.

The mood today in Seattle was upbeat - the times, they truly are a-changin' - and we must believe that our voices, raised in chorus, can make a difference. It's not enough to grumble and gripe about the evils that Bush and Co. have done in the name of America. You must be willing to stand up and be counted, recognized as a dissenter, which may not always be a popular road to travel. As we walked around Seattle today, further away from the rally, my Anti-"W" button was a catalyst for conversation and thinly veiled disgust. So, they proudly display their "W" on the backs of their cars - isn't it just like a follower of Dubya to be so disagreeable about, well, the act of disagreement? There were t-shirts at the rally that were downright incendiary - if worn, they would certainly provoke a response from uber-Bush supporters. I say, go for it. After 9/11 - many adorned their homes, cars and bodies with jingoistic intensity, flags flew with patriotic fervor. I just wonder how many of those flag-wavers would've done so if they were told that by wearing an American flag, or by flying one, that they would be targeted for death by anti-American extremists? My guess is that patriotism would've gone right into the closet, in favor of life.

This new breed of patriots, much like the original old breed, isn't going to hide in a closet. This lot has become emboldened by the fact that it appears as if we are no longer the minority. As Bush's poll numbers drop, even as his own party begins to seek separation from him, it's clear that the majority of Americans are anti-Bush, pro-America, and aren't afraid to admit it. In fact, if a revolution is what's needed to turn this country around, many of us are much more willing to die for our freedom than to remain entombed in the false democracy pimped out by our government. Given that there seems to be more of us than them, it truly does appear that the tide is turning, and that by standing together, raising our fists and voices, the evildoers will be thrown out, justice will be served and democracy will return once again to American shores.

With two hours of sleep in my system, I'm all out of steam. I hope this post is just as galvanizing as the day has been. There's hope for a better America - one without George W. Bush at the helm. And while we're at it - one without the neo-conservative war-hawks that have run the name of this country into the ground. It's time to take our country back.

Today was a great step. Today was a very good day.