---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Mon, 28 Oct 2002 08:28:12 +0530 From: Udhay Shankar N <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [silk] I Went Down to the Demonstration...
From John Perry Barlow. Interesting. Udhay >---------------------->> -------------------->>>> ------> > >100, 000 March in San Francisco. Media Fail to Notice. > >So I went down to the demonstration yesterday. Instead of getting my fair >share of abuse - the San Francisco police were as non-confrontational as >Muppits - I was ignored. Along with anywhere from 50,000 to 150,000 other >people. > >In spite of its being largest and most demographically diverse >demonstration I've seen in a long career of dissent, the closest the Bay >Area peace march came to being a national event was a mention on page 8 of >the New York Times that thousands had also gathered in San Francisco. > >Perhaps if it had turned violent... But probably not. As I said in my last >blast, the best way to neutralize us is to pretend that we don't exist. >The puzzling question to me is, why are the media going along with George >II on this. What the hell is in it for them? > >I mean, we know that the war sells papers. William Randolph Hearst, a >pioneer in this regard, told his photographer in Cuba - where the >battleship Maine had just exploded, providing the excuse for the >Spanish-American War - "You get the pictures. I'll get the war." > >But if all you're trying to do is to get and keep public attention, any >popular fracas will suffice. I am certain that a lot of people bought the >paper today to find out about yesterday's demonstrations. Why couldn't >such a modest desire find its gratification? It's weird. I can think of no >mechanism by which the White House could directly muzzle the press without >someone getting the word out over the Internet. But something is making >the media act as if opposition to this war is no big deal. > >But from where I was marching, it looked like a big deal, and not simply >because everything I'm involved with looks like a big deal to me. This was >huge. Let me tell you a little about it, since apparently no one else is >going to. > >I've been on the road with Mountain Girl Garcia. We have been staying at >her daughter Trixie's Julia Morgan house in Oakland and decided to take >BART across the Bay rather than experience the agony of looking for a >parking place in a city that doesn't have parking places even when nothing >unusual is going on in town. When we got to the north Oakland BART >station around 11:00, there was already a line for the ticket machines >that snaked half an hour out into the parking lot. The train, when we >finally got on it, was breathing room only. There was a line to get out of >the station at the Embarcadero. > >I'm not keen on being in line, but these experiences were not at all >unpleasant. There was a lovely energy among the protesters, who seemed to >be of all social sorts. It was not just the usual suspects. There were >children, old people, men in suits, as well as people who will never wear >a suit. A lot of tweedy academic types. Not so many with darker skins, I >regret to say, but some. The only truly common element seemed to be a >pleasant civilization. > >And there were one hell of a lot of us. > >When we finally got up to Market Street around noon, the march had already >launched toward the Civic Center. Market was dense with humanity as far as >I could see in that direction. We counted several different cross-sections >of the moving populace, and the parade seemed to be about 20 people >across. Assuming that each phalanx of 20 moved though per second, this >would be about 72,000 people per hour. The march continued unabated for at >least 2 and a half hours. If our calculations are even a little accurate, >this would be over a hundred fifty thousand people who had gathered to >protest a war that has barely begun. > >I remember the first anti-war protest I ever attended. It was in the fall >of 1965 and it took place on Boston Commons. I'd be surprised if there >were more than a hundred people there, though they included, as I recall, >Howard Zinn and Noam Chomsky. It was not until after Kent State, five >years later, that I saw anything like the assembly of protestors I >witnessed yesterday. > >Furthermore, on that occasion, in May of '70, it seemed that just about >everyone filling the Mall in DC looked pretty much like me. We were not >The People. Not to say that scruffy, dope-smoking kids weren't well >represented in yesterday's march. But they were certainly not the >majority, even if you counted the scruffy, dope-smoking seniors like me. >Mostly the marchers seemed like Just Plain Folks. > >There were some great signs. Like "Impeach the Uber-Goober." Or "No >Weapons of Mass Distraction." Or "If Tim McVeigh caused 911, would we bomb >Michigan?" Or "Chez Panisse for Peace." Or "Stop The Bushit!" Or "Stay >Glued to the TV, You Hysterical, Brainwashed Fool!" One showed a concerned >looking whale with a thought balloon that said, "Save the Humans." > >It seems important to me that this many Just Plain Folks could come to >together on such short notice. It seems important that so many could >gather in indignation without any violent or rude behavior. It seems >important to me. > >But it's not important to the media. Why? > > >------------------------------------------------>>>> -- ((Udhay Shankar N)) ((udhay @ pobox.com)) ((www.digeratus.com))
