(about twice as much as I've ever seen in my life) how about a bit of the lowdown about the protest?

First of all, we (the group of SLC grad writers I was with) never quite made it to the actual rally. We got stuck on 57th and 3rd with no way to get down to 1st where the rally was being held, because the police had barricaded off all the cross streets. Apparently, they closed off First from 23rd to 72nd for the rally, but someone forgot that the majority of the protesters would arrive in New York at Grand Central (42nd and Lexington(4th) for those not familiar with NYC), and would somehow have to cut over to 1st. So it turned into a big mess; we were definitely obstructing traffic on 3rd and I imagine 2nd was just as bad if not worse. A few people got a little frustrated and tried to force their way through the barricades, but really on the whole it was very peaceful. The annoying thing is that if it were a Yankees victory parade that fouled traffic up this badly, people would be blaming the police and city planners for not taking the appropriate steps to accomodate the crowd, but somehow in this situation it's our fault that so many people wanted to protest and then had nowhere to do the protesting.

But the upside is that we finally got some attention from the local and national media -- even enough that some pundits are finally asking why the administration continues to ignore and discount our opinions. (See Strategic Advice From the Public, Bob Herbert's op-ed piece in the Times today.) And it was encouraging to see how many people were willing to stand up for beliefs that aren't in the majority. Lots of the signs at the protest read Democracy=Dissent or Patriots for Peace, just a reminder that a primary principle of this country is the right to one's own opinion. I think that's the primary reason I went, to protest that our leaders seem to be wearing blinders when it comes to looking at any options besides war as soon as possible. There's a lot of foolish radicalism and name-calling on both sides of this issue that has really got in the way of a serious discussion on our options. It would really make me happy if my small contribution on Saturday opened the way to a more reasonable dialogue about all of this.

Currently Playing: Automatic for the People - Monty Got a Raw Deal