Ah, finally I can post about the march last Saturday. Kudos to all those people who braved the freezing weather in D.C., just another reminder of how easy we have it here in S.B. It was a sunny and, at points, very hot day as we assembled in Alameda Park and got ready for the march. A lot of the events were organized by a guy I know called Carter—he writes a music column for the Valley Voice and is very active in the Peace Movement.

He also likes hats. The march was led by Veterans for Peace, another reminded that those who fought in war actually know what it entails, not like the entire White House staff, who were never in the armed forces (Mr. Bush, going AWOL doesn't count, buddy!)

We marched from the park, down to State Street, and continued five blocks down to De La Guerra plaza.

I met someone a few days later who marched in S.F. and conditions up there were sardine tight. Not so here. We were slow going, but there was no risk of bumping into anyone. The usual drum circle people were banging away, there were a few costumes—not many—but the age range covered the entire spectrum.

Notice the anarchy "A". What's the Circle E about?

Now at De La Guerra Plaza, I stopped for a while and filmed people passing by. Immediately I ran into my friend Chris:

I forgot the name of his friend, sorry—and ran into Ted and Jay, Ted shaking away at a tin full of pennies or something.

Here's the bumper sticker they were passing out to everyone (would you refuse anything from this girl?)

I should say not. Jessica held her sticker for a while, then had me affix it to her chest. Now, somehow, it's found its way to the underside of our toilet seat (no photo, you'll be relieved to know).

At the Plaza people doubled around and marched back up State. Later estimates put the entire crowd at 5,000. I would say that's about right.

I raced ahead of the front to get a good shot from the parking lot next to Borders.

I took this just as three guys and one girl were being arrested for hanging a sign over the railing of the parking lot. They first asked for a citation, but got arrested instead. They seemed thrilled to be taken in by The Man. One was shouting down to the crowd, "WE'RE GETTING ARRESTED! SEND CAMERAS!"As per his wish, suddenly twenty photographers and videographers came steaming up the parking lot steps to catch the action.

I didn't want to get too close to the "action,"not knowing how arrest-happy the police would be. Soon, the cops were telling all of us to go back down unless we too wanted to be thrown in the pokey. This seemed unfair, as if this was an accident, we’d be allowed to rubberneck all we wanted.

However, that was the only real "incident"of the day.

The march returned to Alameda park and a few politicians spoke. I got there at the end of Hannah-Beth Jackson's speech. I didn't hear anything that interesting afterwards.

Best thing about the day was the myriad of signs, some fancy, some slapped together, all angry, many funny. Below is a collection of my faves.

And now that Bush is intimating that anyone who disagrees with him is a traitor, let me suggest this new "Protestor Wear":

Peace! Jan 18, 2003.