World says "NO" to war
February 2003
by Mike Webb

I've never been really sure if I like people, or really hate them. I go back and forth on this conundrum pretty regularly, but since going to the "World Says No To War" peace rally on February 15, 2003, liking people is on the upswing.

Although I would have gone anyway, I went to help do some promotion for the magazine I work for (The Nation). We decided to pass out free copies of the current "The Case Against War" issue, and buttons that said "Dissent Protects Democracy," "Surveillance Undermines Liberty," "Pre-empt The War" and a few more. When you offer free things to people supporting the cause they're uniting for, you'll get huge crowds around you with their hands out.

We started out at 6th Avenue and Central Park South, and proceeded to slowly walk toward the rally taking place at 49th Street and First Avenue. Normally, this is a 15-20 minute walk. But for some reason, a lot of people decided to start their march there, so we were "stuck" with about a thousand like-minded citizens, chanting, laughing and working our way over to the rally.

About 1,000 magazines, 10,000 buttons and one hour later we found ourselves at Second Avenue and 59th Street. Apparently, the rally was so big, the cops wouldn't let any more people over to First Avenue. Now I'm not the kind of guy to be out on a Saturday at noon, so once I am, I damn sure am gonna get my ass over to the hot spot. So I started working the cops – making friendly, asking them where I could get in, and trying to get them to take the few buttons I had left. Sucking up to cops doesn't work in the violent world, and it doesn't work in the peace-loving world either.

Somehow though, I found an opening at 2nd & 55th, and slipped through as quick as I could. As people were heading across 55th toward first, they started screaming and yelling – it really was kind of exciting cause we were getting in. And as we came up to First Ave., we saw the mass of humanity we were looking for – 125,000 people cheering Martin Luther King, Jr.'s son as he quoted his father and wished for peace. When you see that many people enclosed together it looks pretty cool through the narrow rows of skyscrapers on Manhattan.

I came to 125,000 by my simple process which involves football stadiums. You see, your average stadium holds about 70,000 people. So you look around, figure out how many times you can fill it up, and viola. It's hard to think people are shitty when you're surrounded by a thousand folks shouting "don't attack, don't attack Iraq."

From there on it's kind of a blur. Bishop Desmond Tutu was probably the best speaker. But I also heard Pete Seeger (singing a lame, crowd supported "Somewhere Over The Rainbow"), union leader Dennis Rivera and organizer Kim Gandy speak out to keep the crowd excited and focused on the mission.

After about an hour of watching from five blocks away, I decided to either get closer or head home for some heat (it was windy and in the 20s all day long). During the rally they said the march was as big on 2nd and 3rd Avenues as it was on 1st. I wondered why they were spreading propaganda like that until I finally got over to 2nd Avenue where things were more tense. Cops on horses were holding the crowd back from spilling onto the street. But the crowd was pissed that they couldn't get over to 1st. I didn't see any arrests, but I'm sure there were some because there was bad blood both ways.

Traffic was snarled, but no one was honking. Literally thousands more were walking 2nd Avenue with their signs, shirts and buttons trying to send a message to the White House that we the people do not want war waged in our name.

The thing that really surprised me was how polite people were. If you got bumped into, you heard an apology. If someone knocked a button to the ground, you got a 'oops, I'll get that.' And generally, people were smiling and giving the 'I'm witcha bro' head nod as you passed.

When I got over to 3rd Ave., I was hoping things would have let up a bit. But it was the same scene repeated. Ditto Lexington Avenue. I did, however, see my first sign of support for the war on Lexington. Two white men (and I point out their skin color only because the protesters were a mix of every kind of demographic you can imagine) were standing with signs that said "Bush 2004" and someone's name with 9-11-01 under it. I was tempted to ask them what Osama bin Laden would have hoped would happen in the aftermath of September 11th, but realizing that this man lost someone close to him (and that I was surrounded by a quarter million anti-war demonstrators), there was no need to start a debate here.

I didn't plan on writing about the rally, so I didn't take any notes on the funny signs (and there were a lot of them), or exact things said. But I do know that all around this beautiful planet, literally millions of people stood up in the hopes of preventing an injustice that could change the way we Americans live for the rest of our lives.

When Bush was in NYC a few days after the Trade Center destruction, he stood with the rescue/recovery people and said Osama bin Laden would hear from us. Hopefully, the millions of people protesting all over the world will help the President hear as well.


(Mike Webb is a volunteer staff writer for 2 Walls Webzine)