Adam Kontras.com - March On Washington...






11:30 PM, Saturday, September 24th, 2005: And so it was. What was to be 20,000 was 200,000 and I've simply never seen anything like it. It was so jammed with people the march started an hour late simply because there was nowhere to walk. The streets were so congested no one could move. It occured to me throughout the day that this was after 2 years. To be able to rally this sort of support in such a short amount of time speaks volumes. The initial rally to start the day was actually pretty boring. Surprisingly Jesse Jackson was the only speaker of any "weight" and he was very quick. And no, no rhymes. I'm really amazed more leaders weren't there. Dennis Kucinich? Michael Moore? Phil Donohue? Maybe they were in the crowd, but they certainly didn't speak. Everyone soon grew impatient with the rally and just started crowding the streets trying to kick-start the march. Eventually things started to move... The ever-necessary "See, I was there" self-shot... There were several extremely overwhelming aspects to the march. The first was the grandeur of it. We were marching in the footsteps of history. From the civil rights marches to the anti-war marches of the past - this was a big moment. Surprisingly it wasn't the "young crowd" you would expect. People marching in their 70's is such a juxtaposition to Vietnam. The guy in the picture could barely walk, yet felt this was that important. Inspiring. More than anything however, were the signs. They said so much. When I wasn't yelling one of the dozen rally chants, I was literally mesmerized by the amount of work and thought that went into these signs. I had found one on the ground that said "From Iraq to New Oleans: Feed people's needs, not the war machine" and carried that, but the homemade ones were absolutely brilliant. They covered every nuance of the movement. And absolutely no sign spoke to me more than this. There was definitely the need to get this point across. The anti-war movement always seems to get defined by the most extreme sides and sanity gets lost. I will admit however, in times like this - it just doesn't matter. I was not embarrassed by the radical signs in the least. You need to be radical right now. You need to say straight up: Bush's actions are absolutely treasonous. You need to put his picture next to Hitler, not because theyre equal, but because it makes people argue the point...therefore think about the point. But it's also refreshing to be able to say "Some of us are simply opposing Bush..." These signs are so important to me to share with everyone that I've created 3 montages that you can click, and scroll through. If for some reason, when you click the picture below your browser shrinks it to fit your screen, please right click and save the image to your harddrive. Then when you open it you can zoom in. It was meant to be scrolled over. The montages are giganic (1600x2000), but I didn't want to make people have to click a hundred thumbnails, this is much easier... THOUGHTFUL These were the poignant signs... ANGRY These were quite the opposite... HUMOROUS And these just made me laugh... The "His Kid, Your Kid" was actually better suited for the "Angry" montage, but there simply wasn't the room. Oh and the reason the "Impeach Bush - It was good enough for Nixon" is in the humorous montage is because this is idiot was charging $1 a piece for them, hundreds professionally made...and Nixon was never impeached. LOL. Do your friggin' homework man. Every walk of life... I cannot express how incredible the diversity was. There were no grey hairs with the Vietnam protests. In fact considering there's no darft, it's only been 2 years, and there's under 2,000 casualties - it is astounding that 200,000 people showed up from 8 months to 80 years old (some in wheel chairs) to make this point. That speaks so many volumes. This isn't some radical point of view, it's OK to dissent - just think about it. Yes, they're probably wondering why Halloween is in September, but they'll remember this in 20 years... Now for the part of the March that stopped everyone dead in their tracks. We hadn't seen them the entire day, but you knew theyd be there and you knew they'd stop traffic. You may think I'm talking about the pro-Bush demonstrators. Of course not. I'm talking about the naked hippies. GOD. BLESS. AMERICA. For your clicking pleasure there are 4 seperate hotspots (yes, find all 4 kids!!!) on that picture that will allow you to see even more fun with boobs, but I warn you - click at your own risk. The...uhm...lady holding the "War is Indecent sign" will burn your retinas. You have been warned. As the concert started on the grounds of the Washington Monument the march started to dissipate. There were about 100 pro-Bush protesters at the very end of the march, but I'm going to give them their own entry. I really hit some strong points that will get lost at the end of an entry as huge as this. Suffice to say they were what you'd expect, but quite funny considering we outnumbered them 2000 to 1. Holy shit I need to cut my hair. Can I really use Dewey as an excuse much longer? I am absolutely a long-hair. Heh. My kids will giggle. At the end of the march, Matt and I headed over to the concert to see what was up and caught Cindy Sheehan jumpin' onstage... By this point I was literally dragging. All the walking I did Thursday, then today and we still had a 20 minute walk to the metro and a 45 minute ride back, and another 10 minute walk home... It was literally "Woo Cindy - let's go." The idea of actually standing in a crowd that wasn't moving, just couldn't have been less exciting. Yup, I'm old. I'm certainly too tired to make any sort of grand reflective feelings about the day. I still need to work on the "Pro-Bush" entry and maybe even one on the civil disobedience on Monday. When it's all said and done I'll chill back in LA and write a final entry, for now - I have to sleep. Enjoy the pictures (you'd better blow 'em up all the way and read every goddamn word - LOL) and try to go back and reread this entry. It's literally too much information to take in at once. Adam ENTRY EEDBACK - VIDEO FEEDBACK PS - You'll certainly need the lyrics. Watch the video at least twice to catch everything. The background music is "Jesus Walks" by Kanye West. Heh, very funny using Kanye's background for another song. As well, here's the mp3. Again, please pass it around... We're mothers, we're fathers, we're sons and we're daughters, We're aching, we're hurting, but their blood is spurting, We've heard all the lies, we've watched with our eyes, As our country's become, everything we despise, The lying, the cheating, the dying, misleading, The right and the wrong, where's the fight? Where's the song? Where's Justin, Britney, Mariah, and Whitney, Mainstream shit needs a sump pump quickly, You must speak up, be the loud watchdoggers, Instead you're getting songs from a burnt out blogger, Who flew 'cross the country to walk hand in hand, With 200,000 strong who knew how to take a stand, 'Cause who's the terrorist? Who's the extremist? who invaded who with a list of bullshit reasons, It's time for us to scream, we're past the time to talk, This isn't just a dream, we're DONE and THAT is why we WALK. That is why we walk, That is why we walk, That is why we walk today, That is why we walk, That is why we walk, That is why we walk, That is why we walk today... We see the other side, with their beedy little eyes, You hide behind a flag, and your patriot disguise, You spew all your hatred, you think you have the right, To invade another country, because you have the might, And you all say you're Christian, GLAD we got saddam, But if he were here today - WHO WOULD JESUS BOMB? You hide behind that wall of faith, the one you can't resist, I hate to break it to you, but he'd be a communist. Yeah he's the hippy, who doesn't take showers, He's the lovenik, who hands out flowers, He denounces wealth, the american way, Yet you pray to him each night, then look the other way, Wanna hurt the middle east? STOP BUYING WHAT THEY SELL, Instead you blow up little kids, It's gonna buuuuuuuuurn in hell. It's time for us to scream, we're past the time to talk, This isn't just a dream, we're DONE, and THAT is why we WALK. That is why we walk, That is why we walk, That is why we walk today, That is why we walk, That is why we walk, That is why we walk, That is why we walk today...