March 8, 2003 A sunny and warm day in Palo Alto Poor turnout for the march and rally - maybe 1,000 people at most. I think the PPJC (Peninsula Peace and Justice Center. peaceandjustice.org) does a lousy job at getting out the word. Of course, who am I to criticize, I haven't been volunteering to help do this. But I think email doesn't cut it; you need to have flyers in shop windows and stapled to every other telephone pole. On my way, I stopped to buy (sorry) cigarettes, and another customer who was just hanging out in the shop for some reason saw my button and asked if I had time for a short discussion. "Nope, I'm late." But he asked his question anyway and I took time to answer anyway. "I'm a million percent in agreement with you, I'm opposed to the war. But what difference do you think it makes to do these marches? Do you think it makes any difference?" Me: "I don't think Bush cares. But I think everything we do we do for ourselves anyway, and I think it makes a big difference to each of us. And yes, in some way, it does matter, since I think every action has a ripple effect." I didn't want to get into chaos theory. But thinking about it since then, I am more and more convinced it does matter for each of us out there protesting, and it also matters for the ripple effect, no matter how tiny. The Palo Alto City Council has already adopted a resolution opposing pre-emptive war, along with some 200 cities across the country. You might say, who cares? But I think it's the same principle, the same ripple effect. First you care locally. You know you did what you could. Then, to your amazement, you find it does matter. Maybe Senators Boxer and Feinstein won't notice or pay attention until all of the bay area cities pass similar resolutions, but the day will come when there's a tipping effect. Enough little ripples will converge to make a wave that will splash onto their nicely coiffed feet. Block that metaphor! I ran into one guy I sort of know, Paul, from CPSR (Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility, www.cpsr.org). The local chapter has dinners from time to time, generally at Chinese places, and I see him there. I joined CPSR back in 1984 since I was worried about people getting alienated due to computers, and people being displaced from work but in the 80s CPSR mostly worried itself with Reagan's Star Wars. It's odd to me how this has transformed into Bush's Missile Defense and there isn't a lot of obvious protest although it's still just as bad of an idea. But I digress. We were milling about the park at Waverly & Everett, two blocks from Karin's, by the way. Around noon Paul George, fearless leader of PPJC, donned portable megaphone and got things going. "Let's enjoy a slow walk instead of a mad rush to war!" We walked two blocks down to University, then about 5 blocks along University, then wrapped around one block each way to end up at City Hall. Or maybe it was a bit longer than that. Traffic did not look happy. There were many police on motorcycles and on bikes, more than I've ever seen at any rally. Paul was obsessed with finding and confronting undercover police; he found 3. I was skeptical but I heard one such policeman admit to his role, and he was wielding a monster size videorecorder and getting every face on video. I am a bit put out by this. I mean, what good is 1st Amendment if it's "1st Amendment Plus a Report Sent to Ashcroft." Well, the march and rally were incredibly polite and civil and all that. It is Palo Alto. I got to meet and march with Severo Ornstein and his wife. Severo is an Internet Hero (tm), having been on the early BBN ARPAnet team. BBN is the company where all the early work was done, in case all this is news to you. One irony is that BBN is barely alive these days. Similarly Xerox PARC is no longer alive; it's gone and sort of stumbles along as a freelance PARC. David Harris, somewhat famous/infamous Vietnam era protester, was the keynote speaker. He is an excellent speaker, I can see where his reputation comes from. City council critters, two of them, Palo Alto variety, got up to speak; you could see why they're politicians! Acapela women's singing group from San Francisco; not that great. Very young woman who is new to all this and kept confessing as much (she didn't need to, it showed) - a De Anza student organizer; kept hollering into mike. I think she wasn't aware of the fact that the mike would indeed amplify her voice. Painful to listen to, due to decibels, and her apparently sweet but unredeemed cluelessness. She should read up on history, ancient/near-past/last month, before her next public speaking engagement. But I guess this mix of peoples is what makes the rally. Lots of people circling through the crowd selling buttons and tacky plastic strings of peace signs. The omnipresent copvcia.com (or is it org?) people set up their table. I don't recommend their web site, it's the new focal point for paranoid interpretations of 9/11. They look like moonies. But 99% of the people there were neither clueless nor moonies! But people getting into being small-d democrats, and being energized from each other. -- Forgot one interesting anecdote! For the first time, encountered counterdemonstrators. A group of 5 or 6 young guys (20s?) stood on one corner of University, waving their own signs and waving tiny American flags. (There are lots of American flags in the protesters' ranks.) One guy was hollering "Let's support Saddam! Let's support Saddam!" in a display of witty (sic) co-optation of our chants. Inspired by his anger and/or nastiness, however I felt it, I yelled back, stupidly, "Shut up! Get a life! Go watch football!" (apologies to all football fans) One of their number bravely joined the march, with his big sign to the effect of Support our President, Support our Troops, and he had on a tshirt that read on the back: Liberate Iraq/ Give War a Chance. I didn't think "Give War a Chance" was funny. Actually makes me shiver to know that people really want war, at some level. What is this primeaval blood lust? Time for me finally to read Barbara Ehrenreich's book on what's with war, called, I think, something like "Blood Lust." She puts to rest the myth that it's a guy thing. It isn't a guy thing. Women are every bit as bloodlusty, sometimes more so. She thinks it comes from humans always being on alert and being attacked by bands of marauding animals. Oops nope, just checked, the book is called "Blood Rites." ---- I forgot probably the most important bit. A multi-faith group decided to hold a 24 hour vigil starting at 3 p.m. Having plenty of time, I think they were going to hold their own private prayer services, and also mutual prayer services, and teach-ins, and share meals together. Now you might say, what does it matter, but I think things like that might matter the most. I didn't stop by later but I thought of them, camped out in front of City Hall.