Under the Microscope
by Glynn Wilson

CHERRY HILL PARK, Md., Sept. 17 - Sipping the hazelnut cream coffee, looking up at the peace flag on the RV two spaces down and listening to Chris Dodd on C-SPAN Radio talking about the continuing investigation of former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales - and the lack of an investigation of Bush, Cheney and Rove - I can’t help but think that if Dodd’s moderate views represent the mainstream views of the Democratic Party, then we are fucked.

In Bush’s world, the National Park Police no longer estimate crowds at protest marches on The National Mall, so we don’t know if there were 10,000 people (the amount allowed under the permit) or many more.

In fact, it seems to be the national obsession of the Washington press corps to downplay the size of the crowd when the protest is from the left, and hype it when the Christians come to town for the Million Man marches.

Some people I talked to said it had to be 100,000 people or more, although due to my own experience estimating crowds, I would say it was closer to 50,000 - if you count all the protesters on the side of the road holding signs, and the press.

Photo by Glynn Wilson

War or peace? You decide…

It was a big march no matter how you look at it, if not the biggest protest Washington has ever seen, certainly. But still, being in the middle of it really got a person’s adrenaline going. Chills went up my spine a couple of times just being in the presence of people with the courage to come here and do this. And maybe it’s a good start.

As I have been saying for a long time, what is needed is about a million people surrounding the White House with candles at sunset with the chant: “Get out now! Get out now!”

While the rich members of Congress might think it will be OK to just ride the bad publicity against Bush and his Iraq War into the 2008 election, that will not bring back America’s reputation in the world. And it will not stop the need to fight our radical enemies in the Middle East.

Their main grievance is that we are over there. Our main action should be to shift our energy technologies away from Middle Eastern oil. It really is that simple. But that would not continue to make the executives and stockholders of Exxon-Mobile, Southern Company, Halliburton and Lockheed-Martin mega-rich.

The Republicans can continue waving the flag and pretending that patriotism means profit all they want, but we should not take it anymore.

The real Americans here are those who traveled from near and far to take part in the protest. To face the U.S. Capitol riot police and put your entire life and career at risk? Now that takes patriotism.

Photo by Glynn Wilson

A decked out U.S. Capitol riot policeman with the first two people arrested going up the Capitol steps in the background.

Photo by Glynn Wilson

Jim Fox marches the last leg of the anti-Bush march

by Glynn Wilson

WASHINGTON, D.C., Sept. 15 - Jim Fox rode a train for three and a half days by himself from Seattle, Washington to the nation’s capital just to march in protest of President Bush’s policies, even though he can barely walk due to his Muscular Dystrophy.

The number one reason he was inspired to make the trip and brave the walk, the heavy police presence and the counter demonstraters was the Iraq war, he said.

“Attacking Iraq was insanity. It could kick off a nuclear, religious World War III,” he said, “and probably will.”

That is if the Democrats now in control of Congress don’t act and Bush is not stopped.

Mr. Fox, 66, spent a number of years in the Peace Corps overseas, including stints in Bangladesh and Iran, and he said the people of Iran are especially pro-American in spite of Bush’s intervention in the Middle East.

On his most recent trip to Iran just in the past few months, he said, “The Iranian people could not have been nicer. But they don’t understand what the Bush administration is doing with 160,000 U.S. troops in Iraq.”

He has lobbied his Congressman, Rick Larson, a Democrat representing Washington State, to support impeachment proceedings against Cheney and Bush.

Larson recently told him in a letter, however, that “we will just have to agree to disagree” on that course of action.

“He sees no reason to support impeachment,” Fox said. “These Democrats think they can skate into office free in 2008. But he is not getting my vote for free.”

He worked for Larson before, he said. “But next time he is not getting my vote for free. I think I’ll work against him.”

Due to Mr. Fox’s condition, which could be helped by stem cell research Bush opposes, he had to skip part of the march and take the Metro over to the Capitol for the end of the march.

In addition to his “No blood for oil” bumper sticker, he carried a 35 mm Pentax K-1000 film camera he bought in 1964 before his first stint in the Peace Corps.

Photo by Glynn Wilson

Redneck counter demonstraters accuse marchers of being traitors and Communists

While walking by a group of counter demonstraters standing on a wall with a flag and bashing the anti-war protesters, blathering some nonsense about Communists infiltrating the American peace movement, he grew angry and lashed out at them as he limped by.

“We are so glad you are so smart and have it all figured out,” he said in a loud and angry outburst. “Sorry,” he said, turning back around to the conversation. “Sometimes I just get mad.”

They made no move to counter him. But just down the street on the Capitol steps, close to 200 people jumped the wall of security and some laid down in a “die-in” to represent the dead and dying troops in Iraq.

On the Red Line train from Takoma Park, Maryland on the way to the protest, former two-term city councilman Hank Prensky, 61, led a small group into “the belly of the beast” that is downtown Washington.

He strongly favors Bush’s impeachment as about the only way to prove to the world that Americans truly believe in truth and justice.

Susan Ogden, 58 and also of Takoma Park - where they say the “liberals go to spawn” or raise kids near the nation’s capital city - also favors impeachment of Bush for all the scandals he’s been involved in. She brought her 15-year-old daughter Sasha Saidman with her on the train. And though she is not old enough to vote, even she opposes Bush.

Photo by Glynn Wilson

Hank Prensky leads a group of anti-war protesters Saturday, including Susan Ogden, Sasha Saidman and Harold Geggings, 29, of Spartanburg, South Carolina

Thousands of Christians prayed for peace at an anti-war service Friday night at the Washington National Cathedral, kicking off a weekend of protests around the country to mark the fourth anniversary of the war in Iraq. Afterward, participants marched with battery-operated faux candles through snow and wind toward the White House, where police began arresting protesters shortly before midnight. Protest guidelines require demonstrators to continue moving while on the White House sidewalk, according to the Associated Press.

Christians Gather in D.C. to Protest War

Meanwhile back in Alabama, the Alabama Peace and Justice Coalition, made up of eight peace organizations from around the state, plans a number of local protests over the next few days to “demand that the U.S. act now to end the war.”

They are being held in solidarity with the huge peace actions being held in Washington, D.C. and more than 1,000 other cities across the U.S. For more information about those events, go to UnitedForPeace.Org.
 
Auburn 

Monday, March 19 at 5:30 p.m., the Alliance for Peace and Justice will hold a vigil commemorating 4th anniversary of the Iraq invasion at Toomer’s Corner (Magnolia and N. College). Contact Michael Mulvaney, mulvamj@auburn.edu or 203-948-8803. More info at PeaceEagle.org.
 
Birmingham
 
Monday, March 19  from 5:30 to 7 p.m., Birmingham Speaks Out says Stop The Escalation, Support Our Troops, at the Five Points Fountain, 20th St and Magnolia Ave. There will be vigil speakers, singing and citizens time to call for peace. Sponsors include: MoveOn.org, Birmingham One Corps, Pax Christi and Birmingham Peace Project, Endorsed by Progressive Democrats of America/Democracy for America. Contact Sharron Williams at sawart@bellsouth.net.
 
Huntsville  
 
Saturday, March 17  from 11 a.m. to noon, the North Alabama Peace Network will hold a peace rally in solidarity with the March On The Pentagon taking place in Washington, D.C.., at the corner of Whitesburg Ave. and Airport Rd.
 
Monday, March 19  from 4 to 5 p.m., the North Alabama Committee for Nonviolent Action Occupation Project will hold a peace rally in front of Rep. Bud Cramer’s office at 200 Pratt Ave.  (corner of Pratt and Meridian).
 
Monday, March 19  from 5 to 7 p.m., the North Alabama Peace Network will hold an End the War Rally at Wellman Park, in Five Points (corner of Pratt and Andrew Jackson Way).

Contact: Tom Moss, 256-468-5314 cell, NAPN@knology.net  or Linda Haynes, 256-429-8639 cell, lahaynes@knology.net.

Mobile
 
Saturday, March 17  from noon to 3 p.m., the Mobile Citizens for Peace and Mobile Chapter of Veterans for Peace
will rally at Midtown Mobile Park (intersection of Government St. and Airport Blvd.).

Sunday, March 25, the Mobile Citizens for Peace and Mobile Chapter of Veterans for Peace and National Veterans for Peace will caravan to a peace rally in Midtown Mobile Park (intersection of Government St. and Airport Blvd.).

The National Veterans for Peace Caravan is starting from North Carolina headed for a hurricane Katrina rebuilding project in coastal Mississippi.  They will stop at the gates of several military bases across the southeast. On this day, March 25, they will stop in Mobile.
 
After the rally at the park, the groups will go to the local office of congressman Jo Bonner in Mobile. Since last July Citizens for Peace has been requesting a meeting with him, but he never finds the time. So people he claims to represent but won’t speak with are going to his office anyway - without an appointment.
                  
Contact: Fairlie Schreiber, president, Mobile Citizens for Peace, 251-450-5970 (w)   251-645-8539  (h), drunderhill@yahoo.com.
 
Mobile Resist, composed mostly of students and recent graduates of the University of South Alabama in Mobile, has a vanload of members driving to Washington, D.C., for the demonstration and march on Saturday, March 17.  Contact Patrick Aubrey, 251-709-8507,  numutke324@yahoo.com.
 
Montgomery
 
Monday, March 19  at 6 p.m., MoveOn Members in Montgomery will hold a candlelight vigil to “Stop the Escalation, Bring the Troops Home Safely and End the War,” at 1000 E. Fairview Ave. (at Woodley Rd in Old Cloverdale)/ The vigil will honor American soldiers who were wounded or killed in Iraq through a reading of personal accounts written by family members of those who have died. Details and signup at http://pol.moveon.org/event/events/event.html?event_id=34827.

Saturday, March 24  at 4:30 p.m., the Montgomery Peace Project will show films and have a discussion at the Civil Rights Memorial Center, 400 Washington Avenue. The Montgomery Peace Project is hosting the National Veterans for Peace convoy which is traveling through the south to promote Appeal for Redress. Contact Valerie Downes, 334-462-9522, valerie.downes@splcenter.org.

Oneonta    
 
Monday, March 19  from 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m., the Blount County Committee for Peace and Justice will hold a vigil to Observe 4th Anniversary of Iraq War at the Blount County Courthouse. Wear black and bring candles. They have permission to use the parking spaces in front of the courthouse to place our sandwich boards, which will have each year’s total of the dead (Iraqi, American: active military, contractors, reporters) and they will read names of Alabamainans who have been killed, including one Blount Countian. Contact Sara Rose at 205-429-3088, or Morris Gardner 205-681-4928, or e-mail bpeace@urisp.net.

Tuscaloosa     

Monday, March 19 at 4:30 p.m., the Tuscaloosa Peace Project and MoveOn will hold a vigil commemorating the 4th anniversary of the Iraq war at Denny Chimes on the University of Alabama campus. Contact David Lowe, (205) 246-6126 (cell), caple66wood@gmail.com.
 
Tuesday, March 20 at noon, the Students for a Democratic Society will hold a peace rally at Denny Chimes on the University of Alabama campus. Contact Chapin Gray, 251-605-7780, chapinrose@gmail.com.