My big fat grassroots weekend
Posted by Thomas Nephew on September 17th, 2007
IRAQ/N. Another guy headed
to the demonstration. Don’t know how
or why he embedded the 7/11 sign in
his forehead.
As advertised, I attended the September 15 “End The War Now” demonstration principally organized by A.N.S.W.E.R. this weekend. As ever, I’ve included a few photos with this post; you can see a few more here.
To get the particulars out of the way, it was smaller than previous ones — I’d say maybe 15,000 to 20,000, judging by how a not-all-that-packed crowd took about half an hour to file past us before we tagged along at the tail end. The counterprotesters noted in many news accounts seemed about as numerous to me as in the past, though it may have seemed like more because of the relatively smaller demonstration.
While ANSWER sometimes gets criticized for widening the scope of marches like these, I have to say I appreciated the pro-impeachment theme that was on display from allied groups like ImpeachBush.org and worldcantwait.org. For our part, many of my Takoma Park impeachment pals were there to help press that idea as well.
One advantage of marches that end at the Capitol Building is that they take you past the National Galleries of Art. So once I’d reached the end I blew the joint and headed back to see an Edward Hopper exhibit that’s just started there. I’d recommend it to all; the quiet of the museum and the stillness of paintings like “Nighthawks” were certainly a nice change of pace after the inanities and worse by the counterprotesters.
On Sunday, we continued a bit of pro-impeachment work by having a table at the Takoma Park Folk Festival. We moved a lot of lawn signs, buttons, and little yellow cards with Rep. Chris Van Hollen’s (D-MD-8) phone number and “H.Res. 333″ on them — that being Kucinich’s resolution calling for Cheney’s impeachment. Nothing at all against demonstrations, but I have to say it felt more productive than the prior day’s march did. The Folk Festival is also a chance to meet lots of local politicians in a pleasant, relaxed setting; thus, I had a very nice chat with “at large” county council member Nancy Floreen, who said we could count her as a supporter.
We also got a lot of names and e-mail addresses; they’ll be added to what is now a sizeable list of impeachment supporters in Montgomery County — and a proxy for what are no doubt many tens of thousands more. We’ll be mentioning them to Chris Van Hollen when we meet with him this week — and we’ll be getting back to them with what he tells us.
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UPDATE, 9/24: WorldWideWeber has a nice post about the demonstration, and here’s a post about how the meeting with Van Hollen went.
UPDATE, 10/1: Of course there’s an ImpeachDuh.com web site! As you might expect, they’re good at having a good time with the issue.
Category: Post. Tags: impeachment, iraq.
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September 18th, 2007 at 1:45 am
Wow - that was a big weekend.
I’m looking forward to the day of regional demonstrations on 10/27. One is in PHILLY. Did I leave that in a comment hear already? I’m just so excited not to have to go all the way to D.C.
I saw in a documentary about Vietnam and activism that it was when demonstrations when national/regional that they started to get traction.
Here’s hoping!!
September 18th, 2007 at 3:11 am
…big weekend
…but wait! that’s not all! I got a really good facial sunburn, and my new nickname for Maddie is “The Defender” after she saved one pointblank shot in the season opener as goalie and saved another goal on the goal line as a defender.
September 18th, 2007 at 3:44 pm
Woo-hoo! Go Maddie!
You’re inspiring, Thomas. Thanks for the photos, and best wishes for the meeting with van Hollen.
September 21st, 2007 at 2:09 am
The Defender - I love it!