Hello All:
For those who couldn't make it, here's a report from the front last Saturday.
I think it was the signs on the porta-pits that said it best: "MILITARY USE ONLY". It was no joke; the potties were padlocked, presumably only to be opened with an official military key. (Were all the soldiers issued a matching key? The mind boggles.) Thank heaven the hasps were cheap and flimsy. (Note to all: until the revolution succeeds, Swiss Army knives or Leathermen are to be de rigueur.) But after all, the potties were on the civilian side of the security cordon, and it seemed just as unlikely that any of the police or military would deign to cross the line into the crowds as it was improbable that any of hoi polloi would even think of putting their toe across the fortifications to touch the sacred asphalt of Pennsylvania Avenue.
The lines were impressive. There were the shoulder-to-shoulder police in Pennsylvania avenue. There were service men and women in between each of these (soldiers facing the parade, the police facing the crowds). Six feet back were the steel railings and jersey barriers, and six feet back from that, strong yellow rope strung between parking meters. The lines and the police looked impenetrable.
This was tested early in the day, when I was waiting at 13th street, with several hundred of my closest friends who I'd just met, to get through the police bag searches at the checkpoint, so we could participate in the rally planned for "Freedom Plaza." A judge had ordered that the police could not frisk anyone without clear reasons, but they were clearly upset about this, and scrutinized everyone to find a reason. People were clearing the checkpoint about one or two per minute, so the wait was well over an hour, at times over two. The police line, at this point, consisted of fences, tape, jersey barriers, and lots of officers. The legions of police seen on TV on Pennsylvania Avenue were only the tip of the iceberg. There were hundreds (thousands?) more a block away in each direction, controlling access to said sacred asphalt, and making movement around the city impossible.
Anyway, there we were, grumbling in utter disbelief at the speed of the checkpoint crew, when, over the hill came a squadron of a few hundred black-clad, bandanna covered anarchists, marching down 13th street towards the checkpoint. Our crowd cheered happily, then a little nervously, as we all looked to our left at the anarchists and then to our right at the police gripping their truncheons, and realized that perhaps between these two wasn't the ideal spot to be standing. My immediate neighbor began rummaging in his bag for several vinegar-soaked bandannas he'd brought, and on the other side, a fellow was fingering the goggles that had seemed kind of incongruous just a moment ago. But as the anarchists got closer, I guess they realized that the lines were seriously fortified, and they pulled a hard right turn and marched off toward the White House, and everyone in line exhaled.
The checkpoint was quite effective in defusing the protest rally as scheduled. At the time the rally was scheduled, only a small fraction of the folks planning to participate were inside the checkpoint. I'm sure this effect was far from the authorities' minds when they established so few checkpoints. Some of us who were inside early decided to use the time to survey the route. This perhaps was a poor plan, since occasionally some VIP needed to cross Pennsylvania Ave, and the police would block off the cross street, trapping people on one side of the cross street or another. Complainers were told to go outside the cordon, and back through another checkpoint. Since we'd all waited over an hour to get in in the first place, no one went for that offer, but there we sat, trapped.
Eventually, I managed to make it down to the start of the parade, and then back up to Freedom Plaza. First important point you won't see on the news: the protesters outnumbered the Bush supporters by at least 3 to 1 or more. Perhaps this was because of the crappy weather (it rained or sleeted pretty much all day), but that's what I saw. More details: the Boy Scouts were out of the closet, so to speak, as tools of repression, and were out in large number, protecting the bleachers from those who hadn't bought a ticket. Dozens of buses carried inaugural party-goers from the Capitol to the White House before the parade started. Not surprisingly, several bus riders gave the protesters the finger, but one gave us a hearty thumbs up. We couldn't make out the face: a hostage? Al Gore? At at least one checkpoint, there were effectively two entrances, one of which appeared to be reserved for women wearing furs and men in long overcoats. Oddly enough, this line was moving quite quickly, and no one there was searched or questioned. I briefly reconsidered my choice of clothing for the day, but reflected that my feet were going to stay warm longer than most of the guys who I saw pass this point.
I'm not sure who planned this, but there was a sort of ideological gradient as you walked toward the Capitol Building. At Freedom Plaza were people who probably would have been there no matter who won. (Sample chants: "Free Mumia", "We Won't Go Back") As you headed toward the head of the parade, things got more moderate. (Sample chants: "No new Texans", "Gore Got More")
Second important point you didn't hear about on the news: Lots of good signs, of course, but I didn't see a single one that read simply "Gore in '04," as reported in the Providence Journal and New York Times. However, I saw LOTS of signs that read "RE-elect Gore in '04." Perhaps it takes a few years of journalism training to be able to ignore the difference between the two. Whatever the vote, you might have seen lots of protestors at a Bush inauguration, just because of what he represents, but thousands were there simply to bear witness to the election theft.
Third important point you didn't hear about on the news: the parade was over an hour and a half late. (Sample chants: "We Are Bored", "If he can't run a parade, how can he run the country?") The explanation I heard was this: the folks who were to attend the foiled Freedom Plaza rally (to dwell on the name of the plaza is only to indulge in cheap irony, don't you think?) took over the large bleacher that blocked the view of the official protest site from Pennsylvania Avenue. They made friends with the ABC camera crew perched high on the bleacher, who proposed an exciting moment of dramatic tension: a shot of the presidential limo passing the protesters in the bleachers, and maybe even an interview with one or two at the same time. The word (and here the tale admittedly leaves the realm of things I or friends witnessed) is that this was communicated somehow to the Bushies, who refused to start the parade until ABC promised not to do this. Anyway, that camera was never trained on the protesters right under its nose, and the crew was distinctly less familiar after the parade started.
I noticed pictures in the New York Times of Bush walking the parade route, smiling and waving, another perfect example of how, in the search for the "good story" or the "interesting picture", the press allow themselves to become the tools of cynical manipulators. What you don't see in the picture is that he was nearly at the gates of the White House compound before he dared to get out of the limo. Most of the parade viewers saw only the outside of the presidential motorcade. You could guess which one was Bush's only because of the three flatbed trucks bristling with cameras that preceded it.
Well, there's more to tell, of course, from the hundreds of police cars waiting on Route 95 for the telltale bus convoys bringing protesters, to the police refusal to let the buses cross the city limits, to the unnecessary scuffle produced when some police decided it showed disrespect to display an American flag upside-down (at least one arrest resulting). I got some great photos of the parade: black limos passing, viewed through a forest of protest signs and police. And of course, no account would be really complete without an account of some of the scores of entertaining encounters with defensive and outnumbered Bushies.
However, the humor of those events tends to obscure the whole point: as it's been said, power flows from the barrel of a gun, and it appears to be true here in America just as much as anywhere else. What was on display this weekend was nothing but raw power: intimidating, overbearing, and repressive, and I, for one, found it profoundly depressing to contemplate. Consign the grade-school interpretation of the pledge of allegiance or the Star-Spangled Banner to the military-only outhouses. The election has been stolen, through a series of cynical and near-treasonous acts, and the abettors are those who think that defending order and "bipartisanship" is more important than justice, truth and democracy. I wish I had a Congressional delegation to fight for me, and to vigorously defend what they say they believe in, even though the opposition calls them "obstructionist," but they seem pretty weak reeds in this storm.