ITS OFFICIAL- 500,000 March on DC...an awesome sight!

[ElsewheresDaughter]

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January 27th began with an energizing rally on the National Mall and, with the Capitol building as the backdrop, the message of the day was crystal clear. It is time for Congress to use its Constitutional powers and to act on the mandate of the November elections -- it is time for Congress to stand up to Bush and end this war. But the rally was just the beginning.


And then, hundreds of thousands of people marched around the Capitol. If you have never been to Washington, it might be hard to imagine what this looks like, but this is a very large area.

As far as we know, this is the first time -- ever -- that any protest has surrounded the Capitol. On top of that, the U.S. Capitol Police, over the weeks leading up to the march, had refused to grant our permit request to do just that, telling us we had to take another route. But when we brought 500,000 people and several members of Congress -- they had to change their minds. In the end, with no incidents, we marched around the Capitol! By the time the front of the march got back to the starting point, the last of the marchers were just leaving the rally site -- we had completed the circle.

If you have photos or video of this extraordinary day, please upload them via the links on our website and share them with others.

If you have reports from any of the more than 100 demonstrations that took place around the country, please send those to us at [e-mail]. From what we've heard already, we know that calls for peace echoed all across the country. We want to hear more, and we want to share those stories.

[whistle]

1. 500,000 anti-war and 40 pro-war....Bush/Cheney/Condi are you listening

....are you watching?

[mediaman007]

3. Sorry, they could care less...

Their words just buy time until they complete the theft.

[spanone]

17. Like they cared what the people thought?

:rofl:

[Blue Belle]

2. Interesting how the media can't get it right...

although, are we really surprised? :eyes:

[gratuitous]

4. Gee, Tony Snow said it didn't look like even 100K to him

Guess he's as good a crowd estimator as he is a newsman.

Half a million, Tony. If you're not shaking in your Florsheims, maybe you should be.

[bdamomma]

16. like when he said the dead in Iraq, was a "comma"

[Lerkfish]

5. I"m confused: are there full sets of leaves on trees in DC in January?

:shrug:

[ElsewheresDaughter]

6. i reposted this from a from a friend...i just added the official photo from

from the United for Peace & Justice website

[Breeze54]

9. Tree Tunnel - Uploaded on January 27, 2007

Uploaded on January 27, 2007
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sduffy/371431808/in/pool-44246010@N00/

Tree Tunnel - Iraq War Protest - 27 January 2007


I don't see any leaves. :shrug:

[Breeze54]

8. I'll bet this pic of the crowd is from '05!

The OP's friend may have dug it up from an old album or been confused.

[Breeze54]

7. In '05, UFP said it was over 500,000!

Great picture! Thanks for posting it!

:kick: & Recommended!

[tblue]

10. If there's an anti-war rally and no one reports it, did it make a difference?

I used to believe in these types of civil disobedience, I used to go to rallies, I went all the way across country to attend the first Million Mom March, and I made picket signs and carried them at one of the World Can't Wait rallies. But I stopped going to protest marches because I stopped believing they make any difference anymore. It doesn't matter if there are 100 or 100 million protesters, people marching on Washington don't attract the attention of the media, they don't disrupt anything, and therefore, I doubt they change anyone's mind. I'm not saying rallies are a total waste of time. They build solidarity and make those who take part (and those who are there in spirit) feel they aren't alone and aren't going crazy. Mass protests also tell the world that we're not all 'with Stupid.' But, as I look back at the larger rallies in recent memory, and look for any substantive difference they've made, I can't find any examples. Nothing shut down, and the cogs in the machinery keep rolling along. I'm not saying we should not go to protest marches. I just want us to consider whether there isn't some better use for our collective energy. Will we still be staging and attending these rallies 2 years from now? Or 5 or 10? And what will change about them that will bring us closer to our goal?

My frustration brings to mind the immortal words of that great Free Speech Movement civil disobedient, Mario Savio:

There is a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can't take part; you can't even passively take part, and you've got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you've got to make it stop. And you've got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you're free, the machine will be prevented from working at all!

(Prolonged applause.)

Now, no more talking. We're going to march in singing "We Shall Overcome." Slowly; there are a lot of us. Up here to the left -- I didn't mean the pun.

December 3, 1964

[Lex]

11. You do it because it is the right thing to do, not because of other people's attention

or of the media's attention.

"There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.”

- Elie Wiesel

[tblue]

12. There are a million 'right' things to do. You could feed the homeless with that time and

money. You can call Congress, write letters, run for office. You can do a lot of things that are 'right.' I can't really judge for someone else what is the 'right' thing to do. I'm just saying I don't think these rallies matter because we are preaching to the choir and it doesn't even get played on the tv. But if you want to go to rallies and that gives you satisfaction, more power to you.

[Lex]

13. Doing one right thing doesn't preclude doing other right things.

You can protest and do other things that are right too. In fact, you can protest and do all those things you mention.

However, telling other people that their protesting is worthless is not one of those 'right' things.

More power to me, as you say, is correct. I did something and didn't just stand on the sidelines belittling it.

Peace.

[tblue]

21. I didn't tell you what to do or belittle anything. Shame on you for saying that. And why aren't

you still there???

I think if huge numbers of protesters were to STAY on the mall, for days, weeks, months, years, until the troops come home, that would do make a difference. That could not be ignored. One day of marching doesn't make the news anymore, and therefore hardly anyone even knows it happened, and nothing changes. You don't even argue that point, so can I assume you agree?

You say 'peace' but you don't mean it, I can tell.

[Name removed]

23. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[tblue]

25. WTH? You're calling me names now? I have very clear reasons why I stopped going to protests:

Like some of you, I've taken part in many rallies. I froze my ass off in New Hampshire doing rallies for 4 weeks for my candidate in January '04, and I went to 'count the votes' rallies in 2000, and 'don't confirm Alito' rallies, and the very first Million Mom March in DC — all the way from California I went. I also made huge handmade picket signs and went to one of the first World Can't Wait rallies in San Francisco. So I have literally been there and done that.

But I'm not doing it anymore right now. That's my choice. The reason I don't is because in my mind they don't seem to make any difference. And I'll tell you why I came to this conclusion.

I hear a lot of live speakers and I listen to a lot of radio, so I'm sorry I don't recall who said this. But someone I heard speaking said something that made all the difference to me:

Democrats and liberals go to protest marches and rallies. And they never get the end result they want. Republicans never hold protest rallies and they always get what they want. The serious right-wingers who do have protests (the extreme anti-abortionists mainly) don't get the end result they want either.

What Republicans have done instead is build their political strength very strategically, with longterm planning and focused purpose. They run for school boards and town councils. They create thinktanks and fund them and recruit young people and develop them to run for and hold office. They help their people work their way up the political ladder and infiltrate every single level of government. They've invested heavily in mass media so they could control the message. They situate themselves on election boards. As a result, they have (until this last election) taken over most state gov'ts and all three branches of the federal gov't, plus the media and the voting mechanism. Of course, we don't like what Repubs have done with all that power, and we would use ours differently. But there's no doubt this strategy worked for them extremely effectively.

So now I happen to believe that, rather than attending a rally, I personally can be more effective helping elect local candidates I believe in, work to influence the people we have already elected, register new voters, and serve as an elections official. So that's what I do now.

Maybe you think that's not good enough and I should just shut up or say what you want me to say.

But just because I'm not outside with signs saying 'end the war,' and I don't think that's as effective as other things I choose to do, it doesn't give you any right to call me names.

Do whatever the hell you want to do. I've given up on you. I'm done wasting my time with you.

[bdamomma]

15. what a great quote. Let them not silence us.

[Breeze54]

18. Apparently you don't read the news or watch tv??

It was all over the news and was the lead story on the nightly news on CBS and NBC!!!

It was posted and published in over 486 news articles!!!

Come back to the fold!!!

If you can't or won't march, then do this!

Virtual March on Washington.

We need your help to do something really big.

We're organizing a massive Virtual March on Washington

and aiming to send 1 million messages to Congress on Thursday, February 1st.

Sign up here -->
http://pol.moveon.org/virtualmarch

[tblue]

22. Thank you! I will look into that. And, no I don't watch tv.

[bdamomma]

14. next march scheduled for March 17 everyone get re-energized

and make plans to go, let's see if we can get that attendance up more.

[Breeze54]

20. Working on that too!

Thanks Alyce! :hi:

[ChiciB1]

27. I Was Just Checking Out Flights From Florida Today.... Got A Nice

tip on a hotel from another DUer too! Wish I could get another person to share a room with me. I'm bringing my grand-daughter to this one, but want to stay a couple of days so she can see some of the museums! She's 11 and I think it will be something she'll remember.

[WI_DEM]

19. Who said that is the official count?

I'm not disputing it was a huge turnout but generally the media likes to down play how many people turn out at these things while the protest organizations tend to exaggerate. Nevertheless it was an impressive turnout.

[LeftishBrit]

24. Wonderful - what a great picture!

I hope the leaders LISTEN!

[lovuian]

26. Woohoo

:woohoo:

[mdmc]

28. kick