By Katrina Wilcox on 9/25/2005, 10:28am PT  
Special BRAD BLOG / Velvet Revolution coverage
of the Sep 24-26 Rally in D.C.
Guest blogged by Katrina Wilcox

{apologies from Winter Patriot: Katrina sent us this piece last night but we didn't manage to get it posted right away ... but better late than never ... here's Katrina:}

Wow! Hell of a day. Crowds of protesters. How many? We tried to estimate all day. Definitely more than 100,000. But once surrounded by that number it is difficult to count more. Whoever was in the helicopter continuously circling overhead would know - but I doubt they will tell. Just all day ... people as far as the eye can see.

The March started with a one hour shuffle of 100 feet. Then finally we started moving. People packed in the street in front, behind, and around any corners we came to - a giant river of people. At a corner we met the front of the March coming back to pass us making one giant loop. Then a row of police guarding the Treasury building reminding all of us that money was all they care about.

There was obvious excitement in the crowd - and the media appeared walking backwards with cameras a foot from Cindy Sheehan and Rev. Jesse Jackson, Jr. as they marched with linked arms. Dan and I found ourselves suddenly marching with 3 feet of empty space between Cindy and Rev. Jackson and us. Dan took pictures and video - then we had to ignore the celebrities and get back to marching.

Later, closer to our White House, shouts of "Get out of the way!" conveyed rather rudely to us the knowledge that the media was coming up behind us - marching faster than the marchers in front of us and apparently feeling that a pathway should magically appear before their special personages as they roughly pushed Dan and I into the people ahead of us while continuing to shout repeatedly and inanely for us to get out of the way. Dan just turned around and asked them where they expected us to move to - there was nothing we could do to get out of their way. He also brilliantly reached for his camera and got a very nice close up of Cindy and Rev. Jackson. Me ... well, I was too worried about being trampled by the media to do much more than try to stay upright. Eventually realizing that indeed there was no way they could part the sea of people in front of them, the media with Cindy and Rev. Jackson following detoured off the street and around the immovable crowd.

Police were lined up with three fences separating us from our White House. Just didn't seem right. The sniper with his gun on the roof of the White House only gave further evidence that those in our White House might realize they don't occupy it legitimately. We did our best for all of you who couldn't be there. We all shouted "Shame! Shame! Shame!" (while shaking our fingers at the White House). We shouted "Liar! Liar! Liar!" Over and over again. Someone shouted repeatedly "What do we want?" Everyone answered "Peace", then "When do we want it?" And we all would answer "Now!" Then someone piped up "They're pretty dumb in there - maybe we should repeat it!" We all made ourselves hoarse shouting. No one wanted to leave our White House. It was where we had traveled so far to be. We had Power. Tremendous Power. People Power. Fellow warriors ... we have incredible power in numbers. Today those of us in DC saw it, breathed it, and drank it in to take back to all our homes around the country to share with each of you.

The return march after the White House to the entertainment was not so densely packed. Eerie too. All the streets were empty except for us protesters. Stores closed. Like everyone had left the city to us. They seemed to have kept two blocks empty all around between the barricades on our side and the rest of the world on the other side. Maybe they thought we would contaminate the rest of the world with something - maybe they didn't want whatever we had to spread.

They did provide us with a zoo exhibit. A strange show of police guarding Republicans behind bars. A single row of vile-spewing beasts standing behind a fence of bars with police between them and us. 150 ridiculous rabid Bush supporters foaming at the mouth with filth shouting nonsense and swear words in a display devoid of any rational thought. A spectacle of insanity. Bush supporters know they are done and it has pushed them over the edge. No one will believe their lie any more that they are the majority. They are a teeny, tiny minority that is shrinking every day. They know even better than we that "Today is the beginning of the mainstream opposition to the war."

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"This administration put up so effectively and so quickly a wall of denial that we were banging our heads into for so many years. My feeling is that Michael Moore cracked that wall and made fissures in it; the women, the Gold Star Mothers laid a pathway; Cindy put her foot through the wall; and we have followed."

- Joan Baez at Operation: Ceasefire Concert.

"How do we have a president that chases weapons that are not in Iraq and can't find hurricanes that are in New Orleans?"

- Rev. Al Sharpton at Operation: Ceasefire

"The force of a hurricane is nothing compared to the storm of anti-war protest that is building in every corner of the United States leading right to the White House."

- Jim Hightower at Operation: Ceasefire.

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