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This is what democracy looks like:
It's the beautiful grief stricken woman kneeling by an empty pair of boots at Camp Casey. Upon whose grief I could not intrude except with my camera, unobtrusively, zoom in and record. I wanted to crouch down with her and weep, ask her name, ask if the name on those boots was her husband, her son. Instead I held the camera as steady as I could with shaking hands and captured a moment on film which was already enshrined in my heart for as long as I live.
What does democracy look like?
This is what democracy looks like:
It's the gold star mom I met on the ellipse, shoulders bent with grief, but with a strength and resolve I don't imagine I could muster if I had sent my son to die instead of to the safety of a college campus. She took the peacecrane I had brought to give to Cindy Sheehan and promised to deliver it for me. She disappeared into the crowd before I could tell her I wanted her to have it instead.
What does democracy look like?
This is what democracy looks like:
It's a very new baby in her mother's arms, sleeping through the noise of her first peace demonstration, blissfully unaware of anything ugly or mean in this world. How I envied that baby! For her and for my own children I swear I will do all I can to stop at least some of the pain.
It's the veteran for peace shouting to the crowd, "What do we want?' And they roar back "PEACE!" "When do we want it? NOW"!
It's tens of thousands of families, students, grandmothers, labor unions, nurses, veterans, soldiers, nuns, gay and straight, young and old, brothers and sisters not in arms, but in peace.
What does democracy look like?
This is what democracy looks like:
It's chaos and choreography, it's chanting and drumming, it's black and white, it's colorful and ever changing, stop to take a photograph and the sea of people around you changes like in a kaleidoscope. It's Catholics, Jews, Muslims, atheists. It's funny, it's gracious, it's hopeful, it's aggressive, it's poetic and ironic and messy and it's impossible to ever put into words, at least not the words I know.
God help us, we want so much to be our own best selves, we actually could be deserving of the space we occupy. And if we are truly determined to BE the change, then peace is not only possible but inevitable. And when that happens governments and corporations and armies will have to stand down and let us take it.
What does democracy look like?
This is what democracy looks like:
It looks just like the America I saw today.
And America made me proud.
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