Protesting Takes EnergyI joined the throngs marching against the RNC yesterday and found mostly that marching in really large throngs isn’t exactly my bag. Still, it is 3:30AM and I feel like sharing.
I at least was smart enough NOT to arrive at 10AM. The march wasn’t scheduled to begin until noon, so I arrived at 11:30 and made my way to what was, at the time, the back of the pack between 15th and 16th. And I waited. And waited. And waited.
Did I mention that the single most painful thing for my bad back is standing still? Finally, at a little before 1:00, the line started moving verrrrrry slowly. At around 3:00 I found myself at 28th St., hungry, cranky and still in some pain since the slow walking-in-baby-steps-in-a-crowd turns out to be a very close second to just standing still. The only real relief I had was the good fortune to be in the shade provided by the big inflated pig for a lot of my death march. So I bailed before reaching 34th St.
While I’m very much anti-Bush, I have to admit that I was getting a little tired of having to walk behind a lot of anti-Israeli banners and “Bush is responsible for 9/11” silliness anyway. Not to mention all of the Socialist Workers Party literature. I want those folks to vote for Kerry, so I’m glad that they are riled up, but I really don’t relish the thought of ending up in a random crowd shot next to any of them.
When I turned off at 28th St. I ran into a pocket of conservative counterprotesters. I was actually impressed with some of the signs. They showed an ironic sensibility that I didn’t think existed on the other side of the aisle ("Keep black children in black schools! Say NO to Vouchers!") On the other hand, one sign I saw near the train at 34th St. said “Stop the Economic Boom Started By George Bush!” I thought about congratulating the signholder for having the one counterprotest sign that displayed neither intelligence nor humor, but I was too tired at that point to want to engage anyone in conversation.
To be charitable, it may have been a canny reference to the common conservative claim that Clinton benefitted politically from the ecomomic policies of Bush the Elder but to credit him for that I would have to simultaneously dock him for not realizing that the period of prosperity he was referring to is already over.
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