Marching towards destiny

By Libby

Following up on my post at Newshoggers on the protest marches last weekend, I have a late arriving photo set from a correspondent I know and trust, my friend JackL who attended with his wife. He has one of the better crowd shots that convey the attendance. Jack has this to say about the event.

I didn't get any photos of the die in and arrests at the end...you've probably seen some of those on the news or on You Tube. Even that was pretty low key...you could choose to jump a barricade and be arrested, or not. (We chose the latter and walked back to our motor coach at Union Station).

I'm glad there are still demos where you can choose not to be tear gassed and arrested just for showing up to protest...very civilized.

I asked him for an estimate of the crowd and he pretty much agreed with the official assessment.

I think there were only about 10K in the start at Lafayette Park, comparing to music festivals...it wasn't that crowded and there weren't as many buses where they were parked at Union Station as I had expected.

Also in comments at the Newshoggers post, Kevin Sullivan of Van der Galien's Gazette notes he attended and estimated the pro-war crowd to be at about the 1000 stated in the media. I don't know Kevin well enough to judge his proficiency in estimations but I think it's a honest one and he's also promised me photos of the pro-war demo. Oddly, with all the coverage from the rightwingers, most of the photos have been of the anti-war side so I for one would appreciate seeing the view from the other side of the barricades.

Finally, via Avedon, here's some eloquent thoughts from NTodd about the march itself, which he attended and has some suggestions about what we can do as bloggers and ordinary Americans to light a fire under our Congress creatures.