My day in Washington, September 24, 2005 Once again I went to Washington to protest the war in Iraq. The Washington Post said: “Demonstration is largest in Capital since U.S. Military invaded Iraq.” and it was. C- Span estimated the crowd at 500.000, I told someone while I was there that we were probably 600.000. I will settle with C-Span but you my friends from Philadelphia who were not there do not believe the Philadelphia Inquirer. Their number? Ten of thousands. They need glasses. On Saturday morning, I took the Peace movement bus from West Chester. With us was a war veteran who was going to protest for the very first time. Later, I found out that quite a few veterans were also doing their first protest. People of all ages coming from all over the country, many children and parents pushing babies in strollers, some carrying them in their arms. I met two women who came as far as Alaska. WOW! And just for the day! They allowed me to use their names: Margie Fricht I and Jan Hall. I met two long time war resisters from New York: Amy Bauer and Donna Gould, who on Tuesday (the 26th) will do acts of disobedience by dropping leaflets on the Pentagon propriety and will -or try to- speak to workers on the consequences of wars. We may hear about them as they probably will be arrested. I met old time friends, a few clients from work and to my great surprise the man from whom I buy fish in my home town. I am always amazed to see so many people I know in large groups when I never meet someone in my own local movie theater. Perhaps we do not have the same taste in movies but it is reassuring that we share the same political opinions. At Camp Casey I spoke with Carlos Arredondo who lost his son in Iraq. I could not hold my tears as he spoke about his 20 years old whose picture was on the ground and as he gave me the last letter he received from him. He was Lance Corporal Arredondo. The link below will let you know what happened when Carlos heard of his son's death: http://www.aztlan.net/father_burns_self.htm For this March, I joined one of my groups: The Code Pink, a peace and social justice women movement. Those women are full energy, fun and know how to move the crowd with their creative chants and know how to attract attention with their pink and often very funny outfits. Dressed in pink myself, I wore a bandanna on which I wrote: BUSH LIES. But my camera was calling me and wanted to capture the day, see the people with whom I worked in preparation of Cindy Sheehan bus tour in Philadelphia, and as much as It could absorb of all. Below is the link that will take you to my day in a visual form. If I have to compare the tone of this march with the one we did in protest of the 2004 Elections is that the despair and sadness I felt in me and in the protesters then, have turned into a profound anger. Personally, I feel that we should protest every week and each city until our troops come home, and continue to do so until we get an answer about WHY we went to Iraq and since we know that Bush will continue to lie, we should continue to protest and demand accountability. Monique Frugier PHOTOS |