GinohnNews! 2005 01 26

I went downtown with friends Stacy, Dorian, Ash, Cam, and Anya. Cam wore a hat that had a sign on it that said "What would Jesus bomb?" We took the Metro in, walked down to 3rd and something, waited through a really big crowd/line to a pat-down & quick interrogation (they split people into male & female groups; no bags allowed— they were thrown on piles of bags, don't know what happened to them later). Once through, we proceeded to Constitution and 3rd and quickly found our way to a spot near the edge of the road, with a mass of protesters. After standing there a while and watching the number of police increase in front of the crowd, I moved about half a block closer to the capitol. There were fewer police there but more fanatical nationalists, some of whom spoke of and prayed to Bush as if he were a god. That was creepy. In general the protesters were more vocal and yelled slogans toward the police (???!) and the world in general (who couldn't hear them), while the acolytes alternated between glassy-eyed grins and strange antagonistic comments toward the protesters. There were a lot of protest signs, most of which were about Iraq and deaths and torture under the Shrub's rule. The acolytes mostly enjoyed chanting "four more years!" and the protesters had all sorts of rhymes and jingles as well as simple chants too, like "four more wars!"

Tiers of police on our side of the road were backed on the other side of the road by lines of uniformed people from all the armed services (all of 'em) randomly mixed together and looking fairly confused, but at least they knew how to form a line. After waiting about two hours, the motorcade started through, with lots of mostly empty buses in the front, interspersed with many police and SS SUVs. Next came a few limos; I believe Trent Lott was in one and Tom Delay in another— lots of boos and cheers, there. A couple large flatbed trucks with lots of press cameras (I think they were press cameras) went by, and we turned our backs on them for a preview of back-turning to come. Somewhere in there a couple military bands walked through. Then an arrow formation of sidecar motorcycles with more black SUVs and the Shrub's limo behind. We turned our backs. Some people turned their backs and raised their middle fingers. There were so many groups there with so many methods of protest and support that I'm not sure the back turning made much of a dent, where we were, at least. I heard later from a friend (Dave Chalker) that most of the big protest mob at 3rd turned their backs.

I heard from a friend (Andy Z who is a cameraman for Channel 7 News) that further down the road a crowd of protesters was shaking the roadside fence, booing and jeering, until the police hosed them down— actually it was a huge mist of pepper spray that comes out of a hose. The crowd departed quickly, then backlashed with snowballs, pelting the police. One of the officers fell, Andy thinks because the cop slipped on ice, not because he was hit.

The supporters cheered when the Shrub went by, and then turned around and yelled some more at the protesters. The acolytes nearest to me (right next to me) yelled at protesters much farther away, for some reason, though it was clear we were protesting too. I didn't complain.

I have trouble in large crowds; even going to a large store or mall is difficult for me, so right after the motorcade went by I was ready to leave. OK, I was ready to leave way before that. As we walked up one of the side streets (2nd?) John McCain walked by, all by himself except for a small clot of spectators following and surrounding him. He was smiling and looking very comfortable and in control of his strange situation (well, strange to me, but I suppose it was normalcy to him). He shook hands as he walked toward Constitution. I guessed that he came out of one of the nearby pubs. Later Dave told me that McCain walked straight through the protesting crowd at 3rd, shaking hands and smiling and helloing amid cheers and jeers most of which were along the lines of "gee, you're alright but why did you toady up to Bush and his horrible ways?" Everybody made a path for him and he walked through to Constitution and down the road toward the White House.

Meanwhile we walked about 10 blocks to a nice old Chinese noodle restaurant called China Express, where you can watch your noodles being made, and where a big honkin' bowl of fresh hot noodles, veggies, tofu, and a side plate of 10 pieces of veggy dumplings costs about 10 bucks altogether. I ated too much noodles and dumplings... Yum. That was the best part of the day. As for the previous part, I hope we helped make an impression on someone out there who can make a few good, rational changes in the way our empire is going.