I made it up to the Seattle peace demo along with several friends (and one charming old dog) but I did not take a camera with me. Luckily, my fine friends at PDX Peace did, and they’ve posted lots of photos at Flickr. Pictured on the left are the banners that AFSC brought up for the march. Yes, they are quite tall, but surprisingly easy to carry… I was so lucky as to get to carry one of them for most of the march. If you squint at the photo you can see the back of my head holding one of them (the farthest one from the camera).

This day of marches across the country drew over 150,000 people (watch a slideshow of images from across the country — the first slide says 100,000 but I guess they were tired when they did the addition because the cities listed total over 150,000). The official October 27 website reports that 6,000 people attended — I’m sure that’s the minimum number. In a few locations we could see that for blocks and the street was thick with people, signs, puppets, banners.

We were with a well-organized, vocal group of folks who had a bullhorn in their possession, and we chanted most of the way. Lively chants like:

1-2-3-4– We don’t want your racist war!
5-6-7-8– We will not cooperate!

Money for housing and education!
Not for war and occupation!

And a few call and responses that I don’t remember (it takes a lot of attention to carry a 12-foot high pole in a city with streetcar wires) but there was definitely some creative rhyming happening. Including a chant about a Walk-out on November 16th. If you’re wondering what to do next, you can visit October 27th’s “What Next?” poll and vote.

The UN Assistance Mission in Iraq released their latest report earlier this month, relaying a grim vision of the violence and deaths that are part of daily life in Iraq since our invasion. The report covers a wide range of human rights issues in the period from April – June of this year:

• Killings of civilians in airstrikes by the US-led forces and by guns-for-hire like Blackwater, followed by “investigations” whose results are not released to the public (page 9)
• The status of women, who are targeted for honor killings and other violence (page 14)
• Imprisonment of people — in some cases for months without charges (page 20)
• Bombs and other killings in Iraq’s civil war (page 7)
• Over 100 executions of Iraqis since the installation of the new US-approved government (page 32)

The report is hard to read… but, I suppose, not as hard as it is to live. It’s no wonder, that some people would insist that our government leaders who have planned this occupation and continue to prolong it, such as Condaleeza Rice, are war criminals.

I just found out that there is a send-off rally here in Portland Saturday morning, as hundreds of people get on buses for Seattle to be part of the regional protest. Yes, it’s quite early in the morning, but then just think of how much you can get done if you’re out and about this early on a Saturday: stopping the war before you go off to get your errands done.

When: 7:30 am Saturday, October 27

Where: Fred Meyer parking lot adjacent to Gateway Transit Center, Portland (NE 99th and Pacific)

It should be a pretty quick affair — we have to get on the road, after all. I won’t be there, since I’m driving up with friends and live so conveniently close to I-5. Expect a report sometime this weekend… with photos!