Sacramento Protest (A personal account)

So, today I went to my first large-scale demonstration. For those who are interested but never have gone (like me up until today), because you didn't know what to expect, allow me to give my impressions of the day.

First thing's first. I found out that the protest was going on by finding a randomly-placed flyer posted on the walls of my College a few days ago. Yes, sometimes it pays to read those things. I thought "hell, I've got to show my support for the anti-war movement, I might as well." So I decided I would go.

Anyways, I got to the town: Sacramento, California. The streets were dotted with people walking to the Capital building: it was already a larger crowd than I had expected, even though I only saw about half a dozen people on the streets as I drove past.

I had looked up one of the meeting sites the day before on http://www.sacpeace.org, and found out that they were meeting in Old Sacramento. Good thing, because that's the only place in Downtown sacramento that I knew where to find (I'm new to the area). I got there, and saw a good 40-50 people from the Modesto Peace Activists branch standing alongside the road. Some were carrying signs, some makeshift caskets to symbolize the dead who would surely come from a war. Others were handing out leaflets, and one woman was holding a loudspeaker and listed off statistics.

I parked the car, and joined the group. They were very friendly in welcoming me even though I didn't know them, and even let me carry one of the caskets. =) We marched out of Old Sacramento and were beginning to walk into the Downtown Plaza when we had our first run-in with the police.

I should note that the reason why we were going through the downtown Plaza is because, for those who don't know Sacramento, it's an outdoor mall of sorts that has a direct path through it to the Capital building and accompanying park. Anyways, 3 cops stopped us at the entrance - they knew we were coming - and asked us to turn away. The woman with the loudspeaker bartered with them, and they agreed to let us pass through if we lowered our signs. So we lowered them, but marched through holding up our fingers as peace symbols. I guess this didn't appease them, because halfway through we ran into more police who said that we had to exit immediately and find another way through. Some people became irate, but a few other calm-headed people talked to them and we agreed to head out and find another path.

Along the way, we met a variety of people. Some honked their horns at us as they drove by. Some cheered and even clapped. Some told us that we should "Remember 9:11" and that we were fools and didn't know what we were doing. Those same irate people I mentioned tended to make snide comments back, but I simply smiled in reply when they came my way. You're not going to win any respect by reproaching those who criticize you, that's what I think. We need to win people over, and we won't do it by mocking them back when they mock us.

Anyways, as we got closer to the Capital I could see that this was far, far bigger than I had ever imagined. We met up with another group, but I'm not sure where they were from, and marched with them to the Capital park. Upon turning the corner, I saw the greatest gathering of people that I have perhaps ever witnessed in person. An ocean of faces, of signs, of flags, of banners and of crosses, stretched from end to end of the two-block long park. The people crowded all the way up the steps to the very doors of the Capital building, and still more poured in from every direction to reach the destination. A great swelling of music - the rhythm of drumbeats - began to fill my ears, slowly growing to an overpowering crecendo of packed noise as we came closer.

From the distance, the drums of protesters were heard louder than the muffled voice of whomever was speaking at the main podium, but you could still discern some sort of voice. On occasion, the voice would stop and everyone in the crowd would erupt into cheers and applause.

I was asked to help hold the Modesto Branch's green banner, and I was glad to oblige. Me and the other flag-holder decided we wanted a better look, so with him and a third person we made our way through the swelling mass to get as close as possible. We ended up about 50 feet away from the main speaker's podium, on the raised area of the stairs, in the dead center of the park. The sight of so many people devoted to one cause left me breathless. I turned, and below me was the great mass of humanity, even larger now than I had imagined it from my entering view. They cheered and applauded. They waved their flags and banners. They shouted protest slogans, and brought the others into a fevered eruption.

I couldn't believe what I was seeing. There must have been ten, perhaps twenty thousand people standing in this place. Standing for peace. It made me proud. I looked closer at the signs, and saw that groups who seemingly should be enemies were standing right next to each other, perhaps silently accepting that their greater goal was the same. A group of Atheists stood next to the podium (as their banner stated), besides people holding up signs about turning "Swords into Plowshares" and that "God doesn't want War." Anarchists stood next to Communists. The Green Party raised the flag over Egalitarians and Buddhists. Palastinians (who, above all the other groups, seemed to want their presence known: they had erected what had to be a 40 foot high Cross, draped in the American flag. I'm not absolutely certain if it was theirs, but that was what I was told by someone in the crowd) stood next to Jewish people (Can you IMAGINE that? But it's true! I saw it with my own eyes), and chanted peace in the same language.

I turned back to hear the speaker. She seemed enraged, and all of her comments were directed more against Bush than against war and the concept in general. I felt like she might have been missing the greater picture, but I supported her nonetheless. I just wish she had seen the greater scope of it all though.

I looked up at the Capital Building. It towered over us all, even over the giant cross. Someone inside was taking pictures: I saw him/her on the top floor, pointing a small camera out the window. I couldn't see the person, but whoever it was had stretched their hand up so that the camera pointed out the window but they were beneath view. I wish I could have that picture that they took, it must've been glorious. They'll probably just use it to start a blacklist or something though, seeing as how only officials were probably in there.

There were many speakers who came up over the next few hours, from many different realms of the peace movement. Some stressed peace as a whole, some stressed individual peace movements. The one I thought was most moving was a Reverend who came to speak. He got the crowd moving like nobody else, and his message was a simple one: God doesn't want us to kill each other. Makes sense to me.

It was then that the Anarchists decided to start making some trouble, and ruin what hope I had built up that day for humanity. They were standing very close to the front, and one of them began to chant "Yes Bush! No Peace!" Which is pretty much the opposite of what everyone was there for. I can't think of why they did it at the time, except later I realized that they're Anarchists: the whole reason why they EXIST is to cause chaos and confusion. Anyways, she got the other Anarchists to start doing it, and that's when the stupidity began. Other people, who were obviously either far too occupied or far too stupid to realize just WHAT it was that they were chanting, began to chant along. About half the crowd chanted "Yes Bush! No Peace!" for about 3 or 4 times before they FINALLY realized what they were saying and shut up. I felt like a tool for even witnessing it, and while it was going on I was telling people around me "stop saying that! Don't you realize what you're saying?". I mean, if they took like 5 seconds to think about what they were chanting before they chanted it, then at least they wouldn't look like total tools. Man, that was the stupidist thing I'd ever seen. It was like when Bugs Bunny got Daffy to say "Duck Season, FIRE!" in those stupid freaking cartoons. I bet the Anarchists got a big fucking kick out of it.

Anyways, so after that I left, more than a bit dissipointed in the stupidity of even the seemingly enlightened masses. I greeted the large (and I do mean LARGE. There must have been 30 or more) police force that was standing across the street as I passed them by. Some in the peace movement think they're the enemy, but in reality they're not. They're members of the Proletariat, just like you and I. Their job is just a lot more dangerous and puts them into unpopular positions. So I figured I'd give them a break and be pleasant to them unlike some of the others. I'd like to think that, if we approach them the right way, they would join OUR side when the class war comes. It happened in Yugoslavia, in Argentina and Peru, it can happen here.

So I went home dissapointed, and then to work. But when I got to work, someone brought something up that made a lot of sense, and in fact restored the faith in humanity that I'd built up by seeing the large group of protesters. "People are stupid sheep no matter what side they're on," he said, "But at least the sheep on the side of peace are TRYING. That's what counts, numbers is what counts. You can't expect people on any side of any conflict to be intelligent. If there was a lot of people there, that's something. That's a start." He was totally right. How could I expect that just because they're on the side of peace, they're any more intelligent or independantly thinking? The important thing is that they were there, and that there was numbers of them. Numbers is important, numbers is what matters most. Intelligence is important, but that can be learned later. At least they're here, they're ready to recieve information.

So, in conclusion, I learned these things for those who want the summary:

1) There really ARE a large amount of people against war.
2) Those people aren't automatically intelligent just for being against war.
3) That's okay, because at least they're trying and they exist to form a group, which in our society is more important than collective intelligence anyways.
4) Anarchists can really ruin a good thing. (Come on, even Anarchists must realize that this is a good thing we're trying to do! I mean, seriously!)
5) No matter how many people around you are chanting something, think for a good 2-3 seconds about what they're chanting before you start chanting it too. They could be chanting that they want to rectally probe anteaters, for all you know, and by the time you start chanting it it's too late to retract it.
6) Yes, in spite of everything I said that was negative, the postive was far better. Please, if you can, join the anti-war protests going on in your area. It's an amazing thing to participate in: you can meet people who have the same thoughts as you, and join them in one cause. And hell, since you're intelligent enough to think before chanting, perhaps you'll help prevent people from looking like idiots when the Anarchists start having their fun.