Yeah, it's the update I'm sure you've all been on the edge of your seats waiting for. Or not. Anyway, yesterday's anti-war rally, I was one of an estimated half million people to take to the streets of Manhattan to protest an 'imminent' and 'inevitable' war with Iraq. Overall, it was a very well-organized and well-run event, despite generally cattle-like treatment from the NYPD, effectively forcing us to march, in spite of the fact that the organizations behind the rally didn't have a permit for that.
This in and of itself warrants more telling. After arriving at Grand Central station, myself, Jay, Krupnick, and Christian walked down 42nd street to 3rd avenue, expecting to walk to 1st ave and then uptown to 49th street, the announced 'center point' of the rally. Upon arriving at 3rd ave, we saw that there was quite a large crowd there, and that the NYPD had closed off 42nd street east of 3rd avenue. Figuring a walk uptown was going to have to happen anyway, we began the slow process of walking up from 42nd street to 66th street. When we got to 53rd street, however, an impasse was reached. the NYPD was holding people back from pressing north or east. Chants of "let us pass" and "whose streets? our streets!" could be heard from every direction, to little or no avail. We discovered that it was possible to continue, and proceeded uptown to 66th street, at which point we were able to cross over to 2nd ave. From there, we had to walk up to 72nd street to cross over to 1st ave, necessitating a walk downtown just to be in visual range of the stage. We made it as far down as about 58th street, where we could press on no further due to the immense crowd. Before long though, the end of the rally was announced, and the dispersal began. At jew's suggestion, we walked from about 60th street down to 34th, so that he could meet up with some group he's involved with. When we got there, the building was locked, and we decided to go home. Crossing 5th ave though, we looked uptown and saw a rather large group of protesters who were blocking off 5th avenue. Who these people were, why they were there, or what became of them, I do not know, but I think it's safe to assume they were also part of an anti-war protest.
Also of note were some of the signs people were carrying. "Drop Bush, not bombs." "Bomb Texas! They have oil too!" "How many lives per gallon?" "Empty warheads found in Washington" (with accompanying pictures of Bush, Rumsfeld, and others with obvious empty-headedness). These were the most memorable of the signs, though I believe the greatest was this: A picture of Uncle Sam followed by the text
I WANT YOU
To die a horrible meaningless death to sustain a lifestyle that will ultimately destroy the earth
All this took place under 'orange alert', which, it has been learned, was raised on the basis of false information. Government intelligence shown once again as the oxymoron it really is. The fact that nothing happened comes as absolutely no surprise to me; if something was going to happen, our government wouldn't know about it or be able to do anything, so they just pretend to know of attacks that are 'almost certain' to happen, but never materialize. It's almost like the boy who cried wolf; if they do this enough, people will stop taking the alert seriously (of course, there are people (like me) that never took it seriously to begin with).
In other news, NATO decided to provide Turkey with defense in case of a war, over the objections of France (who is not a member of the Defense Council); the San Francisco rally drew upwards of 200,000 people; and CNN is lying to us (a lie of omission is still a lie).
Pictures from yesterday's rally will be available shortly, thanks to the camera of arsjerm and the photographic skills of jay.