I arrived late, just as the march was beginning. No way to estimate the size of the crowd, but, I know that as it finished passing by me I hurried back to where it began and the march was just arriving back at the park.
Probably 15 blocks of a fairly tightly packed march.
Going on the fifth year of our aggression against the people of Iraq. What's it take to bring this country around to the enormity of its error? Marches and rallies gather the community together and let us know that we are not alone. We see the stranger beside us, and know that this Occupation eats at their soul as it does our own.
We see those who have served in the armed forces now speaking out against the war, against the illegal and immoral Occupation of another country.
We see the children, children who in Iraq go without the necessities of life, let alone the comforts, let alone the luxuries we enjoy, while our tax money is squandered to enrich a few unscrupulous and fearful demagogues.
We see each other, and know that we are all outraged at what America has become, what America has allowed itself to become.
Today was a good day in the streets of Portland. Most marched in line with the rules; many did not, and challenged the established order, defying the police who exist solely to enforce the rule of the guilded few over the increasingly awakening many.
Marching and Rallying emphasizes our soldarity, but this is only one of many avenues to peace.
If we go home, lay aside our signs and wait for the next such event, we lose the momentum we gained side by side, making music and dancing in the streets, chanting truth to power and throwing our fury at the tightly organized mob of darkly padded police.
For myself, as at every such event, I have gained a deeper insight into the depth, breadth and extent of our growing disaffection with those who rule us so incompetently in our name.
For those of you who could not attend, hopefully these pictures will bring you some idea of the Resistance, sombre and often angry, but also at times creative and joyful.
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