WAR...What is it good for? ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!

This weekend was GREAT.

For those of you that don't know. I headed out to Washington D.C. for the big war protest. It was great. 100,000 people rallying and protesting to bring our troops home and end this death filled war. There were sooo many great speakers there including Cindy Sheehan (Camp Casey in Crawford) and Jessie Jackson. There were also a few Congressmen & women that spoke out against the war (all democrats of course).

I went with Larry and Lindsey. Friday night, Larry forced us to watch a documentary on John Kerry, which kept us up way later than either of us had wanted, but we both did learn about him and the war protests of Vietnam. Saturday morning we got up at 7am, which was mega early for us and ran to Starbucks to caffeinate ourselves. The metro was PACKED. And D.C. itself was even more crowed, but everyone there was happy and upbeat. The Rally was great but was a little too long towards the end as everyone was ready to march. There were so many people marching that the pace was sooooo slow, so we bounced to grab something to eat and then came back.

I had heard that there were going to be counter-protesters at the march and wondered before-hand how many would be there. Republican's can easily raise money, but when it comes to actual mobilization and grassroots organizing - they really suck at it. We finally saw them towards the end of the march. I recorded it because it was the saddest thing I ever saw. There were like 75 of them tops. All caged in with about 150 police in front of them for their "protection".

Had you seen these people you would quickly realize that they were the target population for "Blue Collar TV" on Comedy Central. I could almost here Jeff Foxworthy's "You might be a red neck..." echoing from behind them. All the men needed was a beer in their hand, and all the women needed was a black eye or a kid hanging off of them and they would have been right at home. Their signs of course were ridiculous and mis-spelled much of the time.

In a nutshell their point was: A) The troops are dying for our freedom which includes the right to protest and assemble and B) we are disrespecting the troops by exercising our freedom which includes the right to protest and assemble. HHHhhmmmmmmm. Bright people they were.

All in all, that was a very small thing that happened. I was somewhat angry when we got back to Lindsey's and watched the news because the media of course made it seem like there was this big clash that disrupted the protest. It so didn't. The vast majority of people walked by without even noticing them. The news reported that there were "over 100,000 war protesters and a few hundred counter-protesters". There were only a dozen of them and I have the tape to prove it. 75...tops!

Then I came home yesterday evening. Got a little lost and was a little late for the support group I run. Later, Joey, Micah, Derrick & I headed out to see John at the Garage and had a few drinks. It was a great, albeit long weekend!

[pictures soon to come]