Lost in a crowd

Wow, was that protest in DC last weekend? It seems a lot longer ago than that...
During my lunch break last week, I waded through a sea of people to reach the mall and the hoards attending the Iraq war protest. It was surreal, if nothing else. I went down 7th st. at about 300, well after the actual protest had ended. I've never seen so many people in my entire life; it really made me think about how awesome the March on Washington must have been.

I enjoy people watching. It's fun to watch others interact, listen to what they say-even just sitting back, blurring my vision and taking in the Impressionistic blur of movement and colors is soothing. Being there made me realize something: a lone person in a group of groups becomes cloaked in there own anonymity. I had no reason to be there; I wasn't protesting, or protesting the protest, I just wanted to see what it was like. I felt like a ghost bobbing between the people playing frisbee on the lawn and the people using their picket signs as a crutch to lean on. No one seemed to notice me because I was alone.

The unfortunate thing about the whole protest was the nature of most of the signs. Many of them accomplished nothing other than displaying the carriers' disdain for the president. Now, I don't agree with the war (I'm not even touching that right now), but does it really do any good to gather together united under a banner of "hatred?" I don't care much for the administration either, but I don't think anything is being accomplished by engaging in hatred. Hatred makes people kill other people (or bomb them), not liberate them.

-N