by Elizabeth Gibson / Mar 19, 2008
WASHINGTON — Hundreds of people were dancing in the street around a stereo in a wagon – teenagers cutting class, senior citizens in pink and glitter, a duo dressed as polar bears, young adults rushing around writing anti-war slogans with chalk, and parents toting children clutching protest signs.”I want to stop the war, but I don’t know if this is the way to get it done,” said Barry Turner as he watched the crowd outside the building where he works in downtown Washington. “I don’t understand why they’re here.”
Onlookers and participants gave mixed reviews for the new protest tactics used by anti-war activists Wednesday to mark the fifth anniversary of the start of the Iraq war. Instead of trying to get thousands to march from the White House to the Capitol en masse, as many protests do, the organizers planned a number of smaller events to single out war profiteers and other issues.
“We’ve had half a million people on the streets of D.C. and the president and Congress weren’t listening, so we decided to try something else,” said Samantha Miller, an organizer for United for Peace and Justice, a coalition of anti-war groups. [For the rest of this article, go here.]
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What bothered me about this years protest is the low turnout. Actions like those held at the IRS bldg in DC are great, but only effective if thousands take part. The apathy is probably due to many things..but still, it was disheartening to me.
That is mainly due to the controlled major media. If all we get is feel good crap and who is sleeping with who, there is no shock value like in the 60’s. Managed news is a governments best weapon against forced change.