1_18_03 Messages from the carnival

The march was great for me because I hooked up with various friends I haven't seen in months, met up with internet people, met people who spontaneously bought me food and coffee, had great conversations, and best of all - we discovered that antiwar people had infiltrated the most capitalist areas in nearby blocks. We stopped at a ritzy cafe to use the bathroom because crocker galleria had lines around the block for the bathrooms, and inside, despite the regular looking patrons, tucked away in the corners and under the tables were signs and props everywhere. While this may be viewed as - 'well these are just the starbucks liberals' - it's huge progress because these areas are almost never affected like this on demos downtown (except for O6th, where fashion zombies could be seen wandering in stunned silence at the 10k+ demo outside of Macy's, Nordstroms, etc.)

In crocker galleria there was an antiwar sign stuck in a planter and a business man with his wife stood looking at it. He reached out and touched it, almost as though in a dream - he seemed hypnotized - fingered it, then appeared to reconsider, and walked away, aimlessly. It was a nice little image of what's starting to really happen now. People are having to wake up from their capitalist stupor, and as they do, they realize they aren't in any position pull a sign out of a planter, because they're surrounded.

And once I got back to the East Bay, people smiled at me, or said 'peace' because of my stickers, etc. One woman approached me and asked me how the march went, and as I started to speak to her I realized that the march itself wasn't that fun - when it gets that huge its almost corporate, and sideshowish, carnival. What was fun was being with my friends and discovering the most bizarre stuff along the way, making fun of cops tucked away in corners, watching the helicopters, talking to the media person who said they estimated 150,000 (but shhhh - don't reapeat that!!) etc. So I felt sort of bad.

But then when I got home and saw the damage from the breakaway march . .. . all of a sudden I felt so good! We'd gone on that march until it turned off market and then my friend, who had to go, offered to buy me dinner in the east bay if I'd leave then, so I went for the dinner, was starving by that point. But then we both regretted it later - next time we'll stick around for the fun. Excellent, excellent work.