The march this past Saturday was massive. I have a strong optimism that we can stop the Bush war on Iraq, and in turn take back our democracy from those who have hi-jacked it.
The corporate media would have Americans think that the resistance against the war is of a token few, and point to our activities that our wonderful democracy allows even us quacks to "express our opinion."
We can gauge our success by the Bush administration's need to lie about the magnitude of our activities. While ANSWER claims upwards of 500,000 present, between 250 and 350,000 seems to be a good consensus of the numbers. Apparently the news media is now claiming that it is politically incorrect to give out crowd numbers. So much for reporting the facts. We can all be sure though that if someone does know how many people were out, it will be George Bush. We can be sure at least one of the helicopters flying overhead (or satellites?) belongs to the CIA and that with cameras and computers they counted most everybody there.
(Why would the corporate media lie for Bush? Because the five major conglomerates are owned by such corporations as GE, which is a key producer of armaments. It should also be noted that the CEOs of the major corporate medias have met with the Bush Administration and come to agreement that it is patriotic to tell lies to support a war machine, no matter it's immoral grounding.)
I have an optimism though that the Bush/Media lies will help to awaken Americans. The Bush/Media would like America to believe that nothing happened this weekend. But those of us there gave witness to a rapidly expanding number of people who know otherwise.
I am also hopeful that more Americans will also connect the dots, and realize that Big Business will only really lose their power over us when we stop giving power to them. Meaning, when we are able to stop giving them our money.
This is where bicycles become the real revolutionary threat. Even carpooling. Or buying local organics direct from a farmer's market, or food coop. Community urban gardens. Community supported resale shops.
The creative possibilities become infinite.
It also entails a shift in our social values. I used to let myself feel wrong because of criticism of my desire to save the planet. The acceptance in our culture that the earth will one day be used up, and therefore we might as well bask in greedy materialism has to go. The belief that our planet is not worth saving has become very obviously suicidally insane to me. I feel a sense of fresh air of optimism to engage in the creativity of saving our planet.
America is in so many ways the belly of a beast that recklessly consumes an unfair portion of planet Earth. To see so many Americans come out this weekend is solid proof that there are enough of us with the desire for Life over Destruction that we can make a difference. To excuse ourselves from this power structure quickly becomes the gravest threat to the endeavors of the Bush Administration and their confused handmaidens of war.
may we find peace