First, Happy Spring!  (and Happy Norooz, if you
celebrate Persian New Year!)  At 4:59 p.m. PST the sun
passed the equator (I think this is how it goes) and
we are now officially in the season of growth and hope
and newness. 

Palo Altans converged at 5 p.m. at the City Hall,
following a plan long ago laid out:  meet at 5 the day
bombs start to fall, or the day after if they start to
fall after 5 p.m.

Let's be generous.  Let's say 500 people.  One cop
across the street looking pretty bored (I guess he had
heard it all before, too), leafing through a newspaper
laid on top of a newspaper stand. 

I was not a good doobie.  I listened to NPR with my
radio-walkman as I had heard all the speakers before
and I was more interested in what NPR had to say. 
Either they had nothing to say, really, or my mind
couldn't focus at all, since I ended up paying
attention to neither, not the speeches, not the radio.
 I watched all the little kids climbing trees or
circling around in circles and being cute. 

I scored a sign!  I am now the proud owner of a
generic sign from the Peace and Justice Center, with
the generic slogan
                 No War For
                    OIL
                 No War For
                   Empire

This slogan works for me, especially the "no war for
empire" part. 
It's on a yellow sheet stapled to a larger white sheet
that is stapled to the wooden stick.  Heh heh.  There
is room on the white sheet to do some customization. 
I think I will be brief and just cut to the chase and
put in the URL

                votetoimpeach.org

I personally believe he could be impeached over 9/11
but that's another thorny issue.  cf. Gore Vidal's
accusations in "Dreaming War." 

It was freezing so happily at 6 I walked over to St.
Thomas Aquinas for THEIR approach on war starting, but
it turns out the "Prayer Service in Times of War"
starts at 7.  I live 5 minutes away so I came home to
eat and to stash my sign.   I felt a little weird
carrying the protest sign into the church, although
I'm sure no one would mind, really. 

KQED radio reports 1,025 San Franciscans arrested
today for their civil disobedience, sitting in
intersections and blocking traffic.   Apparently
thousands of people are still roaming the streets up
there, and it's now in between 6 and 7 p.m.  I am
actually kind of surprised by the numbers.  I don't
think they are all anarchists although there is a
significant anarchist branch that shows up to all the
mainstream protests. 

Guess what: my real estate agent Lillian just called
and she said she's going to a anti-war protest on
Saturday.   Then we talked about the agony of my poor
hardwood floor and in despair :-) agreed to meet next
week.  She says we are listing April 8.   You don't
argue with Lillian.  My conclusion from this phone
call is that we are listing April 8.  I will phone the
flooring contractor tomorrow and make sure he knows
the deadline ... 

Marianne