Volunteers for a Better America

Hundreds of Thousands Protest Bush Iraqi War and Occupation

by Linda Beale

Last Friday, two buses left Champaign-Urbana, Illinois with 98 people bound for Washington DC.  We took the well wishes of many more from this area who could not attend.

Our goal was simple:  speak truth to power.  The Bush administration started a war of choice in Iraq with misleading information about the potential aggressiveness of a dictator that we helped put in place.  That war itself violated the most fundamental international principles of non-aggression to which this Nation subscribes.  The administration and its corporate cronies in the military-industrial complex then began a bungled occupation that has now lasted for years, providing ever more fodder for terrorism and anti-Americanism all across the Middle East and beyond.

Speakers at the rally were forthright and clear in their call for Bush to end the war now and focus resources on US and world poverty instead of wasting them on military expansion (such as Rumsfeld's revised strategies for strategic preemptive nuclear strikes) and contracts for corporate cronies like Halliburton.  Ramsey Clark, for example, spoke articulately of the international laws to which the US has agreed and that have become therefore a part of US laws, now broken and shattered by this administration.   

The refrain of  all the speeches was a clarion call to the Bush administration to act responsibly.  A call for an end now to the senseless death and maiming of thousands of U.S. troops.  A call for an end to the senseless "targeted" strafing of Iraqi villages where the main victims are innocent old men, women and children.  A call for an end now to militaristic responses to world developments.  A call for a return to the careful and deliberate diplomacy that is the most viable route through which a freedom-loving nation can lead world change.

Hundreds of thousands of ordinary American people streamed into Washington DC and overflowed its streets--from gray-haired women in wheel chairs to small toddlers in strollers, from the generation that protested our insane involvement in Vietnam to the generation that grew up under the two militant Bush regimes, from black to white to red, from Muslim to Christian to agnostic, from disabled to hale, from sick to well, from rich to poor. 

How many people were there?  (You can't get the answer--or find out anything much at all about the march--from America's corporate media like Rupert's Fox News or even CNN or the New York Times, which at best quote only the organizers' pre-event estimate of 100,000.)  The tightly packed march that began on Constitution Avenue between the White House and just before the Washington Monument had already flowed back to the area just beyond the Washington Monument before tens of thousands even made it to the first left turn onto 15th Street!  I know, because I walked forward to check it out from our place in line way back on Constitution and saw the three streams of people from the parking lot, from Constitution, and from the area around the Washington Monument merging slowly into one packed shoulder to shoulder and front to back from wall to wall (or barricade to barricade where the police had roped off the sidewalk, for themselves and the puny pro-war protesters) at the same time that those who had already walked the route were being directed by police, a block away on Constitution, to walk out towards the Washington Monument to return to the rally itself.  Many sat at the Ellipse throughout, unable to go on the hard walk.  Many others, like most of the AWARE group from Champaign, waited patiently in line for 4 hours before beginning to move in the long march.  (Unaware at that point of the immensity of the crowd of protestors, we thought that the march just hadn't begun yet!)   For us, the march only began at 2 pm when we finally started walking slowly forward, at a time when the organizers had expected the march to be completely over!

The organizers had estimated that 100,000 people would come to participate at the time several months ago when they arranged the DC permits.  At about 11:30,  long before many buses arrived from New York and beyond, the organizers announced that there were at least 250,000 people present.  At about 3 pm, when I was finally marching up 15th Street and could see the packed streams of humanity behind me and in front of me (and, at the cross streets where one could look over to the parallel street on which the marchers were heading back down to Constitution, at the side of me), it was clear that there were not one or two hundred thousand people, but many more than that--at least 300,000 and probably 600,000 or more.

As photographs come in from various participants in the march, we will add them to this post.  For now, to get at least some sense of the march from amateur photographers (who regrettably could not take advantage of the aerial view from the media helicopters that constantly flew overhead), I've provided this link to the Daily Kos posting of a number of excellent photographs and this link to a BBC video of the London demonstration that includes one aerial shot of the Washington rally at the very end.  Check back later for more.

Inaugural Post

by Linda Beale
Today our country approaches what could be a critical turning point. Will we Americans demand of our President and Congress a thoughtful, deliberate government that respects the wonderful diversity of the American population, empathizes with those who do not have the means to provide adequate health care or shelter or nourishing food to their families, and understands the trust placed upon it to secure the natural resources of this beautiful land for future generations? Or will we permit corporate greed and the corruption that stems from a super-rich elite cozying up to a power-drunk military-industrial complex to destroy the American dream?

The decision is ultimately up to us. We the People can work for a better America.

We can do it by letting our government representatives know that we will not condone torture and inhumane treatment. When the military and their hired contractors disrespect a single prisoner, they are devaluing American principles of freedom and equality. We can take back our country from those who would sell its forests, rape its wilderness, dispossess its wildlife and pollute its waters, air and earth. We the People can join together to ensure that the elderly live decent lives, the poor have opportunities for education and jobs, and the sick have decent health care. Most importantly, we can stand tall for the principles that have in the past given hope to the downtrodden here and around the globe, by condemning the smear tactics and misinformation of the extremists on the radical right. We can do it by talking to our friends, our neighbors, and our communities about the values that we cherish.

We are your neighbors, your teachers, your doctors, your friends. Our group originated as an activist volunteer group based in downstate Illinois in the course of the 2004 elections, and we have come together again as Volunteers for a Better America to work for these progressive ideals that have always been the core of what America is about. This weblog is a small step in that direction. We hope to share with you our thoughts about the pressing issues that are before our nation, based upon solid information, not the distorted misinformation that so often besets the media today. In this weblog we will talk about the environment, education, clean elections, civil rights, taxes, partisan excesses, foreign affairs, terrorism, torture and the American occupation of Iraq.

We welcome your comments (though reserving the right to edit or delete them if they are disrespectful or hateful), and hope that this weblog can become a useful forum in helping all of us in the Land of Lincoln rediscover the joys of community and the wisdom of sound factual analysis.

We also invite you to read our Mission Statement, linked at the top left, and scan our events and other linked weblogs. If you would like to join our group, please email you name, address, email, phone, and a short “blurb” about yourself to [email protected]. We’ll contact you with information on becoming a part of our online community and attending our meetings.