PAF participated in an anti-war rally yesterday. I'm of two minds about it.
On the one hand, it was great to see everybody, lots of old friends, lots of strangers, by our standards a big crowd of maybe three thousand people: vets, unionists, religious groups, peace and justice groups, students, families, young and old, people in wheelchairs. Gives you that "I am not alone" feeling.
But at the end of the day I don't know if it matters that much that we did this. There are enough lizard-brain jingoes in the electorate -- people who despite all evidence to the contrary continue to believe that Saddam was involved in 9-11 and that Iraq did possess WMD -- to prevent an overwhelming, veto-proof majority in Congress which might actually end this damn war, and the administration clearly could not care less about our demos, rallies, signs, and speeches. Part of me feels disempowered, disenfranchised, held hostage in a republic of idiots.
I think we had to do this demo for us, for ourselves, for each other; but I have little faith that we can end this war, or prevent a future attack on Iran.
