THE WASHINGTON MARCH... A FIRSTHAND REPORT

By Lee Morehouse

The bus ride uneventful, punctuated every two hours for food and drink. Everyone got along wonderfully, and often you could see a college or high school student talking to one of the older people on the bus, both sharing ideas and collecting them. The energy on the bus likened itself to a community, with every age group or school group mingling with the other groups. The younger people sat at the back of the bus, and the older people sat towards the front, but people were constantly switching seats in order to find another person to swap ideas and questions with. The conversations were virtually non-stop. Due to the free environment, none of the usual social constraints or fears existed. Guy friends sat in each other's laps, slept leaning against each other, and were able to show friendly affection towards each other without anyone making a deal. Everyone was just real and unique.

Once in Washington, D.C., everyone dispersed into the crowd to join the rally. The buses arrived in D.C. at 10:00am, and the march was to begin at 1:30pm. There was also a rally scheduled at 11:00am that would continue until the march. The energy of the rally was the same as the bus ride, but more energized and focused. Several speakers and musical performers helped to keep the energy going. Among the speakers were Rev. Al Sharpton, Rev. Jessie Jackson, and Representative John Conyers of Michigan. Some of the demonstrators at the rally carried banners, flags, or signs, while others were content to wear a ribbon or button. Several different groups were present but they were all united under one cause: No war on Iraq. Some even supported Bush and the military, but thought Bush was being too hasty in his approach. Others were extremely anti-Bush; using colorful language and biting cartoons to express their views.

At the appointed time, the enormous mass of people formed together and began to march. The huge line of densely packed people moved from the Mall in front of the Capitol Building, where the rally had taken place, out onto Independence Avenue. From there the march continued onto Pennsylvania Avenue, which it followed until it turned onto 8th Street. The peace demonstration proceeded from there onto NJ Street, and ended at the Navy Shipyards. All told, the half a million marchers covered almost 2 and a half miles. The organization that put together the demonstration, A.N.S.W.E.R., purposefully planned the march to go through governmental, poor, residential, and military districts. Two groups had stationed themselves at spots on the sidewalks to protest the marchers, but they were vastly outnumbered and mostly ignored by the demonstrators. During the march, police lined the sidewalks, but only to keep the marchers on the street and to keep cars out of the march areas. The acts of civil disobedience were planned for the next day.

The bus ride home was less rambunctious than the ride to D.C., but the same communal energy was present. Everyone slept more, and the stops were less frequent. About an hour outside of Kansas City, one of the kids put on a Bob Marley song for everyone to listen to and the whole bus began to sing along. For the remainder of the trip, various people began to pass CD's up to the front to be played. The music selected was peaceful in theme, and the entire bus knew the words and could sing along. Everyone just felt free.

Reactions to the march and demonstration were almost totally positive. Everyone was happy about the turn-out of almost half a million (C\ ti reported 485,000) and even though they had just spent 8 hours in 15-degree weather, no one was complaining. Everyone just felt lucky to have been apart of the experience. The only concern was that most of the public would not get an accurate representation of how many people had participated in the march because the New York Times and most other newspapers were reporting 20 or 30 thousand, which was vastly inaccurate. Just by being in the middle of the huge mass of people, and seeing the line of demonstrators stretch from one end of the street to the other and then go around a curve, it was obvious that there were at least half a million people there in support of peace. This is the beginning of change, and not just about whether or not this war is waged. This is the beginning of a change in the American mindset.