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We assembled at the Martin Luther King Jr. Center Plaza in St. Paul and were inspired by several speakers. The march of a little over a mile to the State Capitol was peaceful and well planned. Police escorts blocked traffic along the route.
The crowd was estimated at 2000, but it seemed like more to me. Many were carrying the familiar anti-war lawn signs, but quite a few created their own, with sayings like "Health care, not warfare", "Stop mad cowboy disease", and "Don't politicize patriotism".
The rally there lasted about an hour with speakers representing several local peace groups such as Women Against Military Madness, Veterans For Peace, the AFSCME labor union, and some neighborhood peace organizations. The messages were all anti-war and anti-occupation. All had strong statements in opposition to Bush administration policies.
None of the speakers promoted a Bush alternative although quite a few marchers carried signs for DFL candidate Dennis Kucinich. This makes me wonder if the left still hasn't got the message conservatives learned from the failed candidacy of Pat Buchanan, who siphoned votes from GOP challengers of Bill Clinton. Despite getting hit with that message when Ralph Nader allowed Bush to take the presidency in the last election, we still have minor candidates courting votes from the left with anti-Kerry campaigning. One would hope that peacemakers could learn not to shoot themselves in the foot.
Local media coverage of the event mostly ignored the huge disproportion of peace to war proponents. On the evening of the rally, Channel 5 News reported that it was attended by supporters on both sides of the issue and gave them equal time for subdued interviews. The Star Tribune, which is often criticized as being left biased, ran a similarly misleading story (http://startribune.com/stories/1762/4676233.html). This put an exclamation mark on one rally speaker's deriding of corporate media's pro-war bias.
Despite the blustery weather, it was heart warming to be a part of the sea of humanity expressing opposition to the war in Iraq on the first anniversary of its beginning. This was our local part of a global day of protest against the war.
There was a small group of pro-war hecklers on the boulevard at the approach to the Capitol, but the much larger group of peace promoters easily drowned them out and even the heckling was reasonably good natured Minnesota nice. As we assembled on the Capitol front steps, a folk singer led us in familiar refrains like "Ain't gonna study war no more" and "Down by the river".
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| Members of the political satire group, billionairesforbush.com attended the protest. |
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