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Posted by kallahar on Sep.29.01 at 08:28 pm PDT.
kallahar writes Today I marched for peace. I joined several thousand of my fellow brothers and sisters of the world in a demonstration against war. Read my account here.
The first problem was parking. The FBI has closed the parking lots around federal buildings, so the hundreds of parking places were gone. I ended up parking about a mile away and walking in. There were about a thousand people along the street in front of the federal building near UCLA. Lots of signs, lots of chants, the sound of drums, the sounds of a gathering. Within minutes I was approached by a girl trying to sell me a paper about socialism, I immediately got into a conversation with her about why I didn't think socialism would work in the real world. The next hour was spent wandering around, talking with people, seeing people.
We then marched around the city. The police were great! They kept the streets blocked and were around to keep everyone safe. This is exactly what I want the police to do. Help people, not harass them and give them speeding tickets. Everything went well, though I wondered at the logical value of having an LAPD helicopter overhead the whole time...
We were now 2500 strong in a line that spanned several blocks. The socialists had a guy on a bullhorn calling for a worker revolution, but other than that everyone was great and calling for peace and an end to the war that america is waging with arab countries.
The march then wound its way back to the federal building and there were a handful of speeches. In all it ended up being an excellent experience and I'll definately be going to another one!
Pictures are available at:
You can find more information about upcoming demonstrations in the LA area at actionla.org
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