3/20 Anti-war demonstration - anniversary of Iraq invasion

Along with around 300 others here in Grand Rapids, and hundreds of thousands of others around the world, I spent a few hours today at a rally called to express our disagreement and protest against the US-led war in Iraq. I went as a member of the Grand Rapids Peace Team, even though I was also involved in planning the event as part of the West Michigan Justice and Peace Coalition. We've been working on this event for the past couple of months, and I must say that I think our work paid off quite well. We had a good turnout, the weather was great (sunny but windy, we'll take it for a Saturday in March, especially considering how much rain we got earlier in the morning) and the event itself went off without any significant problems.

A group called United for Peace and Justice issued the primary call for the demonstrations - although another group, International ANSWER also planned events for this day. UPJ's agenda is more agreeable, less ideologically strident in its presentation, than the ANSWER group, so I am content to follow that lead. When WMJPC learned that this day, the first anniversary of the Iraq invasion, was going to be marked by numerous protests in different parts of the country and the world, we saw a good opportunity to stage our own event here in Grand Rapids. So we made the arrangements to set up a gathering at the Calder Plaza, right in the center of downtown Grand Rapids. Our program consisted of three speakers, some poetry readings, singing, a march that took us past the Grand Rapids Press, the US Federal Building, and the newly opened DeVos Place (which was hosting an RV and fishing show), and after the march, a participatory dance for those who like that sort of thing, and an open mike period where people could just come up and say whatever was on their mind as far as the Iraq situation was concerned.

As I said, I attended the event as part of the GR Peace Team, with an assignment to work as a non-violent peace keeper. We had heard reports from some local Freepers and Protest Warriors that they were going to mount a counter-demo against our anti-war message and we knew from experience that they had the capability to seriously disrupt things and perhaps goad some people into hostility with their heckling and other antics. So we prepared for the possibility that some kind of intervention on our part would be helpful to prevent things from getting out of hand.

It turned out that most of our preparations went unused - though it was still good for us to have planned for various eventualities. The opposition turnout was very meager. Only about 10 people or so - one family of four (two parents, two children) who were mainly interested in expressing their support for the victims of 9/11, and the afore-mentioned posse of self-styled super-patriots, who were mainly just guys who have bought into the idea that peace activists are a bunch of mealy-mouthed, traitorous, cowardly appeasers out to undermine everything that is good and noble about the American way of life. (That is, the standard Sean Hannity/Ann Coulter line of thinking that seeks to demonize and ostracize most points of view that seriously challenge their own underlying assumptions about what is the best way to guide and govern our society.) They made a few attempts to yell over our speakers, get some "U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.!" chants going, and otherwise interrupt what we were doing, but our own sound system and the purpose for which we had all gathered made them easy enough for us to ignore, and they quickly ran out of steam. We wondered if they would ever try to get into our staging area or directly enter the crowd itself, but they stuck to the perimeters and outer fringes, finally settling all the way across the street, apparently content to play for the attention of passing vehicles since they were not able to bait any of us peaceniks into verbal conflict. We offered them a chance to access our open microphone at the end of the rally, but they took off before we got to that part of the program - perhaps so that they could get to the 3 p.m. gathering over in Holland, MI, near Lake Michigan, about an hours drive from where we were.

As for the actual crowd of demonstrators, we had a good mix of veteran grey-haired folks who recalled earlier protests from the Vietnam era, some middle-aged suburbanites like myself, clergy, and younger people too, college students mainly, though there were also some teenage girls who looked they stepped off the TRL set holding signs saying things like "War in Iraq is Whack!" which got me laughing. I noted several photographers and videographers who captured the scene from many different angles and I will look forward to getting some of that material to post on my website and elsewhere in the near future.

It was a great encouragement once again to be with a big crowd of people who dare to hope for a society and a nation that is more willing to do the hard work necessary to find alternatives to war, violence and killing in responding to international crisis and conflict. I continue to be convinced that this war was unnecessary and has been seriously mismanaged from its earliest stages. Our leaders have betrayed our trust and should be held accountable for the destruction and calamity that their decisions have caused. Watching the news and reading the papers can be a demoralizing experience when we see so many people apparently being swayed by the distortion and misrepresentation that continue to mask the injustice that's taken place through this war in Iraq. I believe that the American public has become much too accustomed and jaded about being lied to by our political leaders, and I hope we can find a way to raise our own expectations. But I also know that there is a lot that we've invested in the various fabrications that have been used to legitimate US military and foreign policy. It's going to be hard and costly for many of us to accept that America is in need of a dramatic shift in its priorities, if we want to be serious about promoting justice and peace both here and at home. These are difficult problems to sort out, and I know we can't undo the past. But the Iraq war was not one that we should have fought at the time and in the way we did.

War is hell - so let's not go there. And if we are in hell, then let's get the hell out!

Sunday afternoon catch-up

I've gotten into another one of those phases where blogging doesn't hold my interest as much as other things. However, I have to keep my commitment so here goes... Just a random list of what's been on my mind and what's coming up this week.

Saw "The Passion" again on Friday night. This time I went viewing it as "simply a movie" and came away from it admiring it as a cinematic work, a landmark film actually, in its ability to create an emotionally moving experience for its audience. There are problems with many of the details that Gibson added or emphasized as far as the gospel and history are concerned, and I do regret that many in the audience will view the film literalistically, but for now I'm ignoring all that. OK, enough of that for now, I have more I could say, but "The Passion" has already been overanalyzed... maybe I'll return to this subject later.

The weather has tormented me with too much teasing about whether or not spring is really around the corner. We've had some sunny but still cool mornings, only to have the skies turn grey and snow accumulate in the afternoon. Today it's gloomy and slushy outside. The snow is mostly all melted but the atmosphere still feels heavy. I am longing for sustained periods of light.

This weekend I am going to be part of an antiwar demonstration in downtown Grand Rapids, at the Calder Plaza. It's part of a Global Day of Action marking the anniversary of last year's invasion of Iraq. I'm still holding on to my disagreement with how President Bush handled that. I'm almost a "single issue voter" because I'm so opposed to the fact that the US went into this war the way it did. I'm going to make a sign that says "WAR IS HELL! ...so let's not go there..." and carry it. I'm also going to be part of a peace team to deal with hecklers who are expected to show up to support the war and oppose what we are doing. Should be interesting to see how it all unfolds...

Thursday I have to lead an In-service at work about our new crisis management policy, which will also entail some review and discussion of how we work with our clients in non-crisis situations. The policies have been handed down from on high, so to speak (upper administration) but we have a lot of logistic work to do to decide how to make these guidelines practical and get it right when getting consultation and authorization from our nurses, therapists, etc.

Speaking of work, I was one of several people honored for having completed 15 years of employment at Wedgwood this past Friday. We had a dessert gathering, with some humorous interludes between the presentations of 25, 15, 10 and 5 year employees. As a token of appreciation, I got a $40 gift certificate which I put toward the purchase of a new desk chair, which I'm sitting in right now in front of my computer. It is very comfortable! A cool mesh fabric chair with all sorts of adjustable features, rollers, tilt, swivel, all that stuff. I had been using a folding chair before that. This is a big step up.

Family life is going kinda so-so. Conversation habits are not as well-established as Julie or I would like them to be. Kids are all eager to get onto computers and spend as much time on line with games, chat, artwork, etc. as we will allow. We find ourselves telling them "times up" quite a bit, just to get them to interact. I imagine that this is happening in millions of households across the country these days. Digital culture is just taking over - and I'm hardly one to criticize it, given all the stuff I do with email, website, etc. But more balance would be nice.

I have a lot of financial stuff in process - refinancing my house, consolidated my auto and home insurance, saved a few hundred bucks by doing so. Did my taxes the other night, should be getting a decent refund in another week or so.

Politics is interesting. I'm not too impressed with Bush's re-election campaign so far - he can stumble his way to defeat, for all I care - but really I am still expecting him to come up with something more compelling or impressive than what I've seen so far. I like watching Kerry go after him and I look forward to seeing the whole process continue for many months to come. Really, I'm not put off by the early start at all!

I learned this morning that Ron Skidmore, the teacher at Park Congregational Church, is going to be terminated from his position in the near future. I am very disappointed to hear this. I have been going there primarily because of his perspectives and I am not at all sure what I will do on Sunday mornings after he leaves. So that will have to be sorted out soon.

Pomoxian.com was updated with some news stories yesterday.

That's probably enough for now to give you a sense of where things are at with me... Unless you want to go check out what I've been posting to the pomoxian or radical-middle email lists.