Still MORE pictures from the rally . . . .

Thank you for documenting this important peace event in San Francisco. I was frustrated when I couldn't find much media coverage of the peace rally. It makes your eye-witness-photo-essay even more precious and compelling.

of the few I had found, most glossed over the importance of this rally, or underestimated the huge number of people from all walks of life coming to the rally. One report said there were only thousands of people in Washington D.C., and only eight thousands in San Francisco. But the truth is, there were at least ten times more. I heard it from the police with my own ears, I was there!

I was there on October 26, 2002, got to the starting point by the Ferry Building at around 12 p.m. People told me the march started about half an hour ago (at 11:30am) and I stood at the corner of Market and Spear Street and watached waves of people slowly moved by me. By the time I finally got to the Civic Center Plaza, it was 2 p.m. and I could see there were still more people coming into the plaza area. There were so many people in the Plaza area you could mistaken this as one of the biggest Pride March, except you wouldn't see as many police in riot gear surrounding the Plaza and on the steps of Court house.

Originally police had closed off only Market street and the streets going to the Civic Center Plaza area. But later because there were so much more people than they expected spilling into the plaza, they started closing off more streets around the City Hall and adjacent streets around the Civic Center Plaza. I was there when they receive order to close off Polk Street from as far back as Turk.

As I waved my sign to the last few motorists being redirected away from Polk Street in front of the Civic Center, I heard two policemen on motorbikes talking about the size of the crowd with someone over the radio, so I asked them how many people did the police estimated there to be, they told me "eighty thousand." Later the number police released to the press was 42,000 -- the official count. I don't know why they reduced the number, but even the police couldn't refute that there were a lot of people in the Satureday peace rally.

Personally based on what I had seen, I would say the early protestors were mostly in large groups, well organized with printed posters, banners, and signs. Later waves of protestors were alot more diverse, they were by themselves, or in small groups of two and three, with their hand-painted signs and flyers. I saw many families, moms and dads with push carts and their babies. Pet owners with their dogs on leashes. Children holding balloons with peace signs painted on them hopping along their sign-waving parents. I saw that Raging Grannies from Sonoma group too, but by the time I saw them, they were tired and were standing on the side of the Fourth and Market resting for a while, watching the parade, and waving and smiling to me.

Seeing the crowd of people filling the entire Market Street, demanding for peace and justice, I was moved to tears by the beauty of the scene, the power of human kindness, in our pursue for freedom and democracy.

There is still hope for all of us.

I'm so proud of everyone for coming out on Saturday for the march in SF!!! I hope that there is a snowball effect with the protests. I hope they get bigger and bigger!!! We have to keep taking to the streets! I was disappointed reading over and over in articles that there were only 40,000 at the march. There were SOOO many more than that! I couldn't see the beginning or end of it, there were so many people. The mainstream media just wants to downplay how huge and incredible and important the march was!!! They aren't really getting to the point of what the march was about. Let's all spread the word of peace and get more folks to come out for these protests!!! Beautiful people, never give up!!! We can and MUST stop this war!!!

Thank you for documenting this important peace event in San Francisco on October 26, 2002. I was frustrated by the lack of media coverage of the peace movement in US. It makes your eye-witness photo-essay even more precious and compelling.

Of the few reports I had found on the web, most glossed over the importance of peace rally, or underestimated the huge number of people from all walks of life joining peace rally. For the October 26th rally in D.C. and S.F. I had read reports saying there were only thousands of people in Washington D.C., and only eight thousands in San Francisco. The truth is, there were at least ten times more than what they had reported. I could bear witness to at least one!

I was there on October 26, 2002, got to the starting point by the Ferry Building at around 12 p.m., an hour after the designated meeting time. People told me the march had started about half an hour ago (at 11:30am.) After marching with the crowd for a short distance, I stood at the corner of Market and Spear Street and watached waves of people slowly moved by me. By the time I finally got to the Civic Center Plaza, it was 2 p.m. and I could see there were still more people coming into the plaza area. There were so many people in the Plaza area you could mistaken this as one of the biggest Pride March, except you wouldn't see as many police in riot gear surrounding the Plaza, and on the steps of City, and State Supreme Court.

Originally police had closed off only Market street and the streets going to the Civic Center Plaza area. But later because there were so much more people than they expected spilling into the plaza, they started closing off more streets around the City Hall and adjacent streets around the Civic Center Plaza. I was there when they receive order to close off Polk Street from as far back as Turk. That was when I heard the "unofficial police estimates of the crowd number."

As I waved my sign to the last few motorists being redirected away from Polk Street in front of the Civic Center, I heard two policemen on motorbikes talking about the size of the crowd with someone over the radio, so I asked them how many people did the police estimated there to be, they told me "eighty thousand." Later the number police released to the press was 42,000 -- the official count. I don't know why the number was slashed in half. Still, even the police couldn't refute that there were a lot of people in the Saturday peace rally.

I left the plaza at about 2:40pm to catch the BART going back to the starting point at Embarcadero, and I could still see people marching on Market Street. On the five o'clock KRON4 news, the reporter Noel Cisnero was live at Civic Center Plaza, and she said the official rally had just finished half an hour ago (at about 4:30pm) and thousands of people were still there in the Plaza. Need I remind you that this rally started at 11 in the morning?

Personally based on what I had seen, I would say the early protestors were mostly in large groups, well organized with printed posters, banners, and signs. Later waves of protestors were alot more diverse, they were by themselves, or in small groups of two and three, with their hand-painted signs and flyers. I saw many families, moms and dads with push carts and their babies. Pet owners with their dogs on leashes. Children holding balloons with peace signs painted on them hopping along their sign-waving parents. I saw that Raging Grannies from Sonoma group too, but by the time I saw them, they were tired and were standing on the side of the Fourth and Market resting for a while, watching the parade, and waving and smiling to me.

Seeing the crowd of people filling the entire Market Street, demanding for peace, I was moved to tears by the beauty of the scene, the power of human kindness, in our pursue for freedom, peace, democracy and justice.

There is still hope for all of us.

Everybody seems to have different numbers for how many people were demonstrating, but the important thing to remember is that every protester represents lots of other people who agree but don't go to demos, or can't get off work, or have trouble walking, etc.

We were mighty and there is no way the unelected oil man occupying the white house doesn't know it. How many oil execs can he turnout for a Saturday afternoon demo?

My only regret is that we didn't occupy Dianne Feinstein's office while we were in the neighborhood.

It can seem so depressing to spend a lot of energy to go to marches like this, and even though it feels invigorating while you are there with the crowd, a hand full of journalists have the power to describe this to the rest of the world. There is one major newspaper in San Francisco, and four television stations, and they can all dismiss the event with a short story. So it doesn't matter how correct you are, or how witty your sign is, or how loud you chanted, because people with power can spend two seconds dismissing it all. It makes it seem like it *wouldn't* matter whether there were 5,000 or 90,000 filling the entire plaza, we're still dismissed as a lunatic fringe even though the vast majority of the public is against intervening, and unilateralism.

It can seem so depressing to spend a lot of energy to go to marches like this, and even though it feels invigorating while you are there with the crowd, a hand full of journalists have the power to describe this to the rest of the world. There is one major newspaper in San Francisco, and four television stations, and they can all dismiss the event with a short story. So it doesn't matter how correct you are, or how witty your sign is, or how loud you chanted, because people with power can spend two seconds dismissing it all. It makes it seem like it *wouldn't* matter whether there were 5,000 or 90,000 filling the entire plaza, we're still dismissed as a lunatic fringe even though the vast majority of the public is against intervening, and unilateralism.

I went to SF from Blaine WA (on the border with BC). Luckily, I had a hotel room in the hotel at the start of the march. From my 7th floor room sliding door, I was able to see the size. There were solid people further than I could see. If anyone out there would like a fair quality digital photo or two of this, I would be happy to send it as an attachment. Anyone is free to use these. I totally agree that the phenomenal (and I think unexpected) number of people of all ages colors and backgrounds was a source of hope and power to all of us. And this is not over!!!!

Joe