It's been a while...

[mdlbear]

since Colleen and I went to an anti-war protest together. Today's the day. Due to things our kids have scheduled, there's no way we can get up to San Francisco, but there's a march in San Jose starting in an hour. Colleen will drop me off at the start, come back home to take chaoswolf to an SF convention meeting, then park near the end-point of the march to wait for me.

Colleen was pretty active picketting the local Federal Building during the first Gulf War, and I did the same after Dmitry Sklyarov was arrested. But I think this is the first protest we've been to together since the 1970's.

Comments

Had wanted to go, but didn't care for the mixed messages

[egoldberg.livejournal.com]

I'd planned to go (it's only a quick MUNI ride), but the organizers are also aligning it in support of the whole Palestinian thing --- and after reading Joan Peters' book, I'm afraid that I'm not touching their cause with a 10 foot pole.

The last rally I attended (in Dolores Park) was filled with angry anti-Israeli rhetoric, so I didn't stay long.

So, I stayed home to print Divine Intervention flyers for next weekend's cons.

Re: Had wanted to go, but didn't care for the mixed messages

[mdlbear]

Very low-key and friendly; no mention of Israel/Palestine at all; the organizers of the San Francisco event appear to be different from the San Jose bunch. I've heard no reports from San Francisco yet (just got back) so I don't know what the rhetoric there was like.

[rowanf.livejournal.com]

I didn't get that feeling at all. There was a lot of different energy there. I heard a young woman read a poem about deferred dreams, a Vietnam widow advocating for not sending other folks to their deaths and taking care of those who do give their lives for the county, I heard Bonny Raitt and other notables say good things about peace, I heard labor folks talk about jobs rather than war. The only folks I saw (a contingent, not on stage) was "Jews Against the Occupation". YMMV and I didn't listen to all the speeches, but my impression was the focus was not going to war with Iraq and dealing with domestic issues. µ