Saturday, January 18, 2003
San Francisco

By the time we got to Woodstock ...
...we were half a million strong

   --Joni Mitchell, songwriter, 1967

Greetings all!  I write from the happy warm outpost of
my laptop in my apartment in Palo Alto.  It was a
great day for the first amendment in San Francisco. 
We weren't half a million strong, but close.  The
police flew their police helicopter, to keep an eye on
things and to gauge the size of the crowd.   The
police estimate - always low - was 100,000.  The march
organizers leased their own helicopter so as to do the
same (we heard this cost $1,500.)  The organizers
estimate - always high - was 350,000.   From my
position on the street, I am sure it was way more than
100,000 and I have no problem believing it was as high
as 300,000 people.  A sea of people.  A crush of
people.   People, people, people lined up and carrying
signs of every sort, mostly handmade signs, not
preprinted posters from various organizing groups. 
Moms, Grandmothers, kids of all ages, drummers,
dancers, people doing street theater, balloons, and
signs, signs, signs.  

The day started early, I couldn't stay in bed.  I had
KPFA going in the dining room, broadcasting what was
happening in D.C.   I had NPR going in the bedroom,
and I'm glad to say NPR had some early coverage of the
march - worldwide.   The demonstration was happening
on Jan 18 in 33 countries, most likely millions of
people.  In the U.S.: D.C., San Francisco, Phoenix,
Tampa, Portland, L.A.   I was distressed to hear that
the D.C. organizers actually brought in the notorious,
arguably anti-Semitic Rev. Al Sharpton as one of the
speakers.  Shudder.   They also had Jesse Jackson, and
no matter what you think of Jesse (he's not my
favorite politician) he's at least a reasonably normal
ilberal Democrat, if something of a media-hog.  

At 9:15 the phone rang.  Julia from the Palo
Alto/Peninsula Peace and Justice Center called to say
they had cancellations and I definitely had a reserved
place on the bus.   Whoopee!  At 9:30 I started the
5-block walk south to the Peninsula Peace and Justice
Center headquarters, in a gorgeous huge sprawling
Victorian.   PPJC has been around since the 60s and
they are well-organized and solid.   They know how to
do things like send 6 buses to a demonstration, for
example. 

Boy was I surprised to see that 3/4 of the people
showing up for the buses were certified OPs!  Grey
haired grannies (if you'll pardon the expression.) 
Perhaps the younger set carpools?  Or maybe the OP set
is more aware of how much more sense it makes to take
the bus than to attempt to drive?  Whatever the
reason, it was great to see.   For anyone who thinks
these demonstrations are an excuse for young college
kids to dress up and play at being political, think
again.   The PPJC crowd is educated, well-off and
determined to speak their minds by putting their
bodies on the street.   One woman was there on
crutches and that would have been too much, except for
the fact that the buses were going to drop us off at
the gathering spot, and then continue up to the
destination of the march, and park.   Anyone who
wanted to could just go directly to the endpoint of
the march and wait for the speakers to start in. 

The official story of the march:  gather at 11 a.m. at
Justin Herman plaza, Market and Embarcadero street,
down by the waterfront, and listen to speakers for an
hour.   Then march up Market street for two miles, to
the Civic Center plaza, a huge plaza, and listen to
the main rally speakers. 

Well, here's where the size of the crowd comes in. 
Justin Herman plaza is a narrow tight little spot,
down where Market Street hits the bay.  By 11:30 or
so, we heard that the crowd of marchers extended up
from Justin Herman plaza to 5th St. and Ellis St - a
solid mile!  Plus, people kept feeding into the main
Market St. artery from all the side streets.  I stood
from 11:15 or so until 1:30 near the end of the
marchers, down at the beginning plaza, until finally
the line of people started moving.   The march
officially began at 12, but like I said, we didn't
even start moving until 1:30 or so.   And let it be
said that I am foolish and forgetful ... just because
it was about 70 in Palo Alto the last couple days, I
shouldn't have assumed San Francisco would be warm.  I
wore a sweater, nothing more.  I was freezing!  I got
used to it pretty quickly but I wish I had another
layer.  And a hat.  And maybe some gloves. 

Milling about, stomping feet, waiting and waiting and
shuffling, we got to see a lot of the signs.  "No War
on Iraq" is the obvious one, but "No Blood for Oil"
was prominent.   Any number of unique homemade signs. 
A huge multi-person banner asking: "Bush: Who Would
Jesus Bomb?"  One Catholic guy carrying a large
picture of the Virgin Mary asking "What Would Mary
Do?"  Parodies of the pledge of allegiance.  Flags of
all sorts: U.S., UN, Earth.  My favorite signs were
the silly ones that prove earnest war protesters still
have a sense of humor:  "Make Sandwiches, Not War." 
"Make Doughnuts, Not War."  "Latinos for the Metric
System."   You have to admit that last one gets full
credits for Ionesco sensibilities.  

I'm not doing a good job of remembering the vast array
of signs and slogans and outfits.  Next time I'll take
notes.  There were plenty of drummers and dancers, and
people dressed up in full-costume bald eagle outfit,
dancing around, and flower-girls all in red, and
grandmothers on stilts (!) dressed all in white with
flowing garlands of white flowers.   Jugglers and one
bag piper (I wasn't eager to march near him.)   I do
think that while other cities may have larger marches,
or while other cities like D.C. may be more
politically important (since I'm sure the
administration totally discounts anything that happens
in San Francisco), there can't be anything like the
street theater that happens during a San Francisco
march.  People really outdo themselves. 

And a darn good thing, too, since that meant there was
at least a continually varying comedy of manners to
observe as I shuffled the two miles up to Civic
Center.  We never reached Civic Center until after 3
p.m.  The march was to start at 12, remember.  This
meant that there was about 3 1/2 hours of humanity
shuffling from one end of Market St. to another.  Near
the end, I dropped into a drugstore to buy a Diet
Coke.  The woman said, "I have never seen such a huge
parade."    People in the ultra-high-rise Hyatt Hotel
were hanging out their balconies, taking pictures.  

There was almost no police presence.  I counted a
grand total of about 8 cops from the beginning to end.
 At the Civic Center, near City Hall, there were about
a half a dozen cops guarding the entrance, in case the
crowd decided to storm City Hall, I guess.  But our
quarrel is not with San Francisco City, but with the
war-bent administration. 

There was one clever group of masked actors, made up
to be Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld and others.  They had
clearly spent a lot of time designing their costumes. 
I didn't get near enough to hear any of their patter,
but I guess they were just having fun dressing up. 
OK, part of the demonstration includes college kids
dressing up and having fun playing politics!  Just not
all.  

I thought that once we got to Civic Center, I could
relax a bit but it actually got worse for a while, an
even greater crush of people.  A crowd organizer
wearing the badge "security" was trying to get the
mass of people to move to the left.   "I have to find
my bus!"  I wailed.  I showed him the map the PPJC
have given us all - my bus could be anywhere on
McAllister, Larkin or Grove.   The security guy
helpfully made me understand where those streets were,
and I commenced my search.   We were told the buses
were leaving at 4 p.m. sharp, and at the rate I was
moving, I figured 3 p.m. was just about the right time
to attempt to find the bus. 

I did find the bus in about 10 minutes, and grateful
and weary, went to sit down in an out-of-the-way spot
to sneak a cigarette.   There was seemingly no smoking
by anyone at this event.  Oddly enough, where I sat
down, there was a crowd of Middle Eastern men and
their heavily-veiled women and children in the middle
of 3 p.m. prayers.   They oriented their rugs towards
the east, took off their shoes, recited prayers and
touched their forehead to the ground.  Needless to say
any number of people video-recorded this event.   I
have to say there sure were a huge number of camers,
digital cameras and digital recorders, leading me to
believe this event will be fully documented on some
web sites in the near future.   The men did the
praying, the women chatted among themselves (don't ask
me) and the kids ran around playing tag.   Then one
guy started teaching some other guy how to do the
prayers.   This was the only group of Middle Easteners
I had seen all day. 

The crowd was diverse in race, creed, age ... but
having said that, it was mostly white middle-class. 

Around 3:30 I went and got on my bus and I'm glad I
did since the available seats filled up almost
immediately after that.  They had told us to get on
any of the buses labeled "Palo Alto", no matter if it
was bus #1 or bus #6 or what.   This led to a bit of
confusion.  

So, I never got to hear any of the speakers at Civic
Center.  I suspect the main speakers, like Joan Baez,
were long done before my part of the march arrived
around 3 p.m.    When the buses pulled away at 4, the
speakers were still going at it, but the crowd had 
noticeably dispersed. 

My overwhelming feeling for the day: gladness.  It was
great to be part of this energetic, creative,
opinionated crowd.  I don't know if this sort of thing
is up your alley, but if you have a chance to be part
of a mass movement like this, give it a thought.  It
is very energizing.  

The Palo Alto/Peninsula Peace and Justice Center is
holding a rally in Palo Alto on Feb 1.   I'll
definitely be there.  That will be a totally different
affair; just assembly in the square, and listen to
speakers.   That event is intended mainly to have a
dialogue with all the rest of our neighbors in Palo
Alto and on the Peninsula (whereas today's march was
really intended to send a message to Washington.) 

The next anti-war march in S.F. is Feb 15: same deal,
meet down by the waterfront at 11 and march to the
Civic Center.  Chances are good that next time I'll
have my own homemade sign to carry!   Send your
thoughts on slogans to ...

love,
Marianne