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KarenInMA Donating Member (821 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Aug-17-05 07:25 PM
Original message
The Vigil in Somerville
So I went to my first protest rally ever tonight. If anyone was there, I was the Karen-shaped girl in the "The Fake News is All I Need" T-shirt. The Davis Square vigil, in beautiful Davis Square, had about 250 people.

My frustrating habit of punctuality got me there about 20 minutes early. There are people who stand on this particular corner every Wednesday with "honk if you want to war to end" signs. I talked to a few of them for a minute, and they encouraged me to join them. One seemed rather angry, apparently a cop had hassled him earlier. I talked to an older lady, who was telling her friend about the "man who ran over Cindy's memorial". I tsked with them for a minute, gave them Larry Northern's name, and wondered aloud if he had a support the troops magnet. The lady looked annoyed at that and said, "We all support the troops. You need more than a magnet".

At 7:30, a quiet woman, who looked rather overwhelmed, asked us to light our candles for 30 minutes of silence. At this point, I really looked at the crowd around me. I had expected mainly angry young people and dirty hippies-Cambridge style. They were there, along with everyone else.

A man had a pin with a picture of his son, in uniform, that said, "My son. My Hero". A very very old man was wearing one of those Armed forces old guy hats with all the pins. There were grandmothers, grandfathers, people who had clearly just come from work, still in ties, business suits or skirts, students, angry socialists, black people, white people, old young, men and woman. It was a good cross section of humanity.

I want to thank everyone who showed up. Thank you for caring. Thank you for showing me that I'm not the only one in this neighborhood who's so angry.
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jurassicpork Donating Member (435 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Aug-17-05 07:28 PM
Response to Original message
1. Just got back from mine in Hudson, MA
I'll be posting something on my blog about it shortly.

JP
http://jurassicpork.blogspot.com
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KarenInMA Donating Member (821 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Aug-17-05 07:41 PM
Response to Reply #1
2. Where's that?
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jurassicpork Donating Member (435 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Aug-17-05 07:48 PM
Response to Reply #2
3. Metrowest,
just north of Marlborough. It's not that far from Somerville.

JP
http://jurassicpork.blogspot.com
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cmd Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Aug-17-05 07:51 PM
Response to Original message
4. Just returned from New Philadelphia, OH
A friend of mine just decided to host a rally this morning. We were very pleased to have 35 people there. We gather in a circle in front of the courthouse at 7:30. We introduced ourselves and told why we were there. There were mothers holding pictures of their sons who were in Iraq, a father who had two children graduate from West Point and many who came to support Cindy. After the introductions, we stood quietly on the corner. Drivers were very respectful. There were many thumbs up and peace signs. No one shouted at us. No obscene gestures.

A big thank you to everyone who attended a rally tonight.
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ohio_liberal Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Aug-17-05 07:55 PM
Response to Reply #4
6. Damn, I wish I had known
There was nothing here locally. I would've driven to New Philly though. :)
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KarenInMA Donating Member (821 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Aug-17-05 07:56 PM
Response to Reply #4
7. We had one freeper.
a guy drove by and yelled, "go fuck yourself". No one even turned around.
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BrotherBuzz Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Aug-17-05 07:51 PM
Response to Original message
5. My event hasn't even started yet...
Edited on Wed Aug-17-05 07:53 PM by BrotherBuzz
here in California. ;)
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Chemical Bill Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Aug-17-05 08:03 PM
Response to Original message
8. Congrats on your first time.
I've been at it since the 60s. We had a pretty good crowd here in Providence, about 100 people at the State House. You should go to the weekly gig, even if you can't go every week. I attend one here and it's nice to know that there are living, breathing humans who think like I do. That's what I like about DU, too.

Bill
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