Among the masses

Yesterday, the big "Not in Our Name" marches were held around the country, protesting Team Bush's moves to go to war against Iraq because Saddam Hussein has to go, or because he needs to be disarmed, or Hussein spit on Bush's dog once...I dunno. I have a hard time keeping up on current events myself. It seems Washington has this "Wheel of Deception" they spin once a day and they blast fax the lie du jour to all their media buddies.

Well, Sunday was the day for the people to have their day. Seattle was blessed with a rare warm, sunny Sunday. Typically, clouds and rain populate Sundays in fall. The fates torture us Seattleites with pleasant, sunny Mondays as we collectively stagger to work.

Crowd estimates place the marchers at 7,000, but estimates are just that. Personally, I haven't seen crowds this big since the first Gulf War run by Bush's daddy in 1991, back when yours truly was yummy draft fodder. Yeah, I know, there was no reinstatement of the draft back then, but I didn't know that. No one knew what would happen. There could have been massive casualties in a land war...well, on the U.S. side, I mean. There wasn't, and the war became a CNN video game for Bush's dad.

Sunday I went alone to the march and discovered the first rule of protesting: Protesting with no one else you know sucks. You can't share a blanket or snicker at the musicians on stage during the rally (let's be honest: the music at rallies is quite lame). You can't nuzzle or smooch and it's twice as hard to talk to some stranger by yourself compared to if you have someone with you.

The pre-march rally was held in Seattle's Volunteer Park, a beautiful locale and home of the Seattle Asian Art Museum. Unfortunately, it also bears the taint of being a hook-up spot for men seeking quick, anonymous sex in the bushes with other men. Personally, I thought it would have been quite funny (in a perverse way) if there was one guy who went into the park looking for action and stumbled into 7,000 people, blowing any chance of the rumpy-pumpy.

Immediately after I got there, I realized I blew a moneymaking opportunity. I should have brought a bunch of poster board, lengths of 1" by 2", glue and markers and opened my own "Make Your Own Protest Sign" booth. I'd charge $3 and people could doodle up their own sign. I would have made a killing.

And I would have gotten to make a sign to join the parade of anti-war posters. Most were simple: "No Iraq War" or the more brief "No War" were popular. "Drop Bush, Not Bombs" had a respectable showing. "No Blood for Oil," last seen in 1990-91, got dusted off for an appearance. The vaguely menacing "Take Down Bush" swayed in the wind while the clever "Think Outside the Bomb" got a few points for good punnage.

There's an art to good sign making. You can't have too many words, but you have to relate to an idea that's on everyone's tongue. "Compassionate conservatives don't drop bombs" is a good twist, but too long. Like a good headline, you need to be witty and brief. Maybe the best sign I saw was a throwback from the early days of the AIDS crisis, "Silence = Death" ... a subtle reminder that not speaking out against this war will end with the deaths of civilians.

You also need to have a short, smart message, because in a protest you have a small sign that's always moving around. People won't read what they can't see. Also, use a white background and either red, blue or black ink for you letters. Make your words easy to read.

If at all possible, make a big puppet or some kind of enormous prop. Not only will you not need words, but you're more likely to get on the news. Ralph Nader once pointed out that the big paper-mache puppets protesters use aren't done to show off some art skills, but to get a picture taken by news outlets. Big puppets also work great because you can make a point visually, perfect when the news anchor is talking over protest footage.

But, I'm horrible at art, destined to make drawing a straight line a struggle between life and death. I did come up with a neat idea for sign, probably better used as a big banner at the front of the parade.

"I'm against this war, and I vote."

A little something for our elected representatives to think about.

A few observations from the rally/march

• The best speakers at any rally are the ones personally affected by the struggle. Case in point: The mother of a Seattle man being held on suspicion of terrorist activities came to the stage obviously intimated by the size of the crowd and also shaken by the ordeal she's coping with. In the weeks that she's been separated from her son, she's only gotten to see him once. In her trembling and humble words, she eloquently put a face on John Ashcroft's version of American law. And she won over the crowd, a lot better than the guy from the ACLU or even the event organizers, who all looked like they shopped at the same second-hand clothing store and took the same Sustained Shout lessons for talking into a microphone.
  
• Caught the "Dykes for Peace" sign in the crowd. I mean, yeah, I think most lesbians are going to oppose some Republican war, especially when the last battle, the fight in Afghanistan under the partial pretense to free the Afghani women from the Taliban, more or less kept the women from making any real progress. Still, I don't think you'll see any "Dykes for War" posters anytime soon. Now, "Dykes for Bush"....
  
• The Seattle police were very respectful of the protesters, as the protesters were of the police. No one expected any violence, and the police helped escort everyone to the Westlake Center destination.
  
• A guy in the crowd was talking to another guy. The gist of their chat was this: There ain't that many people at this march, but there will be when the first few thousand body bags come home, and when talk of the draft gets serious. Then you'll see enormous marches clogging major cities and hundreds of thousands descending on Washington D.C.
  And I think, "My God, will it come to that?"
  
• A nice, long march kept my mind off Nintendo.
  
• Speaking of a nice, long march, I walked with a couple of ladies who weren't shy at all about taking to people on the side lines. One woman would spot an onlooker about 10 feet ahead and start calling to him or her to join the march. "Your rights are at stake" was something she'd say a lot.
  I smiled and told her that in Seattle, it's best to approach it as "It's a nice day for a walk" since we get few sunny Sundays in the fall.
  
• Someone dressed as Dick Cheney was leading someone dressed as a blood-soaked George W. Bush around by a leash. I was tempted to make a corporate bondage joke, but was happy to see that Cheney came out of his undisclosed location to join us. A little exercise would do the walking heart attack some good.
  
• At roughly the corner of Broadway and John, U.S. Representative Jim McDermott joined the crowd, which signaled its reaction in a hearty roar of approval. McDermott was one of three Congressmen who just came back from Iraq and said Bush's claims of Iraq as some version of Mordor were just plain foolishness. Ol' Jim was working it, partially on instinct as a politician at any parade, but also with a bit of gray panther zeal. If he was going to take a stand against Bush, he was going to march like hell and show the media that he had an army behind him.
  
• I was briefly on the Channel 5-Seattle news broadcast Sunday night, by the way. If you looked carefully, you could see a glimpse of my short-clipped brown hair, my Agent Smith sunglasses, my tucked-in green pullover and my black-black jeans. I looked so much like a narc, no wonder no one talked to me.
  
• Well, someone did. I brought along a notepad and a pen to jot down notes during the march/rally. At one point, a guy leaned over.
  "Are you an observer?"
  "No," I said. "I'm just a guy that writes a lot."
  
• Speaking of observers, some of the marchers had the jobs of photographing the cops and radioing events to each other. Armed with walkie-talkies and cameras, they filmed the police and media, who were filming us.
  
• I should have brought a camera.