DC PEACE RALLY FINAL REPORT

Yesterday, I went to the big anti-war rally in DC. As some of you probably know the AMTRAK trains on the east coast were mysteriously shut down yesterday. The conspiracy theorist in me believes that this was no mere accident.

Luckily, I bought my bus ticket for the rally last week and did not miss a thing. I boarded the yellow school bus at the American Friends Service Committee on York Road. The bus was scheduled to leave at 9am but did not leave until 9:55am. The majority of people aboard the bus were students from Towson State University.

While on the bus I though it would be picking us up from DC at 5pm but it turns out that the bus I was on was the party bus. It would be picking us up at 10pm instead of 5pm. The people who scheduled the buses had another one over at the Stony Run Friends on Charles Street. This was the bus that would be taking people home at 5pm. Instead of speaking up saying I was on the wrong bus I decided to keep my mouth shut. Besides, my name was already on there roster and I felt it would be a more interesting day if I stayed in DC longer.

The bus dropped us off at the DC New Carrollton subway station. While there I saw the other group of people from the Stony Run bus. I’m sure it must have been them because I noticed people from the demonstration on Thursday as well as people from my church.

While on the subway train headed to the demonstration there was a man who recognized me from the demonstration on Thursday. He was handing out handouts of the song that they sang on Thursday in front of Congressman Elijah Cummings office. Here without further adieu is the song that we fellow Baltimoreans and other peace demonstrators sang on the DC metro train headed to the march.

(Sung to the tune of “We Are Off to See the Wizard”)

WERE HERE TO TELL THE CONGRESS

ITS TIME TO GET OUT OF IRAQ

OUR SONS AND DAUGHTERS WERE SENT TO SLAUGHTER
ITS TIME TO BRING THE BACK!!

IF EVER A HORRIBLE WAS THERE WAS

THE WAR IN IRAQ IS ONE BECAUSE

IT NEVER HAD A GOOD EXCUSE OR CAUSE
ITS A PRODUCT OF BROKEN LIES AND BROKEN LAWS!!

WERE HERE TO TELL THE CONGRESS

ITS TIME TO GET OUT OF IRAQ!

WERE HERE TO TELL THE CONGRESS

ITS TIME TO GET OUT OF THE WAR

IRAQ WAS CURSED BUT NOW ITS WORSE
THAN EVER IT WAS BEFORE!
ITS TIME TO THE TERRIBLE FACTS WERE FACED
THE WAR IN IRAQ IS JUST A WASTE
OF LIVES AND WEALTH THAT CANNOT BE REPLACED
A TERRIBLE HORRIBLE STUPID WASTE!!

WERE HERE TO TELL THE CONGRESS, ITS TIME TO GET
OUT OF IRAQ!

When I finally got off the DC subway train at the Smithsonium stop I was surprised that there was a greeter there. She pointed to the right if you were headed to the book fair and to the left if you were there for the demonstration. The vast majority of people were headed to the left. Gee, that sounds so symbolic....

As soon as I saw the other demonstrators I started taking photographs. It was literally wall to wall people. Unfortunately, I ran out of disk space on my primary digital camera before the march even began. In total I snapped about 15 pictures on the good camera. I had to switch over to the crappy digital camera when the march began. It’s not crappy per se, it is just very old. It can hold 26 photographs. However, you can’t do picture previews like you can with the other camera.

When I finally made my way to the march I saw legendary TV infomercial man Matthew Lesko. I was surprised to see someone like him there. Then again when you look at the books he writes you get the feeling that he’s not a let them eat cake type of person. I also saw Billionaires for Bush there. I snapped a picture of them with the older digital camera.

Also at the demonstration was a block of pro-war demonstrators. I could not help but notice that every last one of them was white except these two asian women who were carrying pro-war signs. I wanted to get a picture of the two pro-war asian women but I was running low on camera batteries. I wanted to take there picture because it was just so weird. The anti-war protesters were a multicultural group and there on the side of the street were two asian Republicans.

When the march finally made its way over to the White House I began to notice this very acrid scent of vinegar in the air. I am not sure were it was coming from. The next famous person I saw was Jesse Jackson. I wanted to get his picture but he was swamped by reporters and bodyguards. WoW! Who would have ever thought that Jessie Jackson and Matthew Lesko would be at the same demonstration!

After my leg of the march was over I headed over to the stage to hear Joan Baez sing. Afterall, a peace demonstration is not official unless Joan Baez is there. Unfortunately, she was singing her last song when I arrived it was a Bob Dylan tune, A Hard Rains A Goin To Fall. While standing near the stage I noticed that this guy who was a part of the stage crew kept staring at me. He looked very familiar but I could not place him. Then I looked up at the stage and noticed the rest of the stage crew. WoW! It was the same stage crew that handles ArtScape every year. It was even the same stage setup. I guess he was looking at me thinking, “BALTIMORE!!! BALTIMORE!!! Baltimore in the Hiz-ouse!!!”

Of all the performers that were there my favourite was Steve Earle. I would describe Steve Earle as being a borderline Marxist. He is a hardcore liberal with a country twang. I have always been meaning to buy a Steve Earle CD....

Of all the speakers my two favourites were Etan Thomas from the Washington Wizards and journalist Greg Palast. Thomas was electrifying while Palast was inspiring. The legendary Jello Biafra did a great job MC-ing the event. Jello Biafra ROCKS!!!

The only thing I found annoying was this rap group I had never heard of before called, The Coup. They were annoying to me because in between songs they kept saying, “How Ya Doing DC!!” I found this annoying because this was a peace rally and not everyone there was from DC. It made me wonder if he had even fully though about whom he was addressing and where he was at. Yes, he was aware of the fact that he was in DC but not aware of why. By the way the music was great, it was just the, “How Ya Doing DC!!”, that grated my nerves.

I left a little before 8pm because I was getting a massive headache and felt violently annoyed by the male singer of some duo called The Evens. I was annoyed that before every song he spent a half hour explaining the song. I wanted to shout out, “Enough Already!!! Sing the Damned Song You Asshat!!!

In the end I got back to the New Carrollton Metro stop just as the yellow school bus was arriving. I was surprised that I wasn’t the only one from the bus that was on the same Metro train. It was about three of us that arrived back at 9:00pm to leave DC at 10pm.

I made it back into the city around 11pm. I was home around midnight. All in all it was a fantastic day. If I had to do it all over again..... I would do it again!!