A Peace March Report
Back in
the Streets
Ann Euston offers a
personal observation of a Jan. 18th peace march in
Albuquerque, NM. She is Program Coordinator for the Witherspoon Society.
[1-24-03]
"Economy Bad? Have a
War!" That was the first sign I saw last Saturday Jan 18. It was beautiful
here in Albuquerque, warm with a clear blue sky. A perfect day for a peace
march.
The day's activities had
begun at noon at Kirtland Air Force Base, home to Stealth Bombers, with a
speech by radio and TV commentator Amy Goodman. From there, marchers were to
proceed to the University, then on to a downtown park.
We arrived at the
University of New Mexico at about 1:30 pm. A crowd was gathering at the
intersection of University and Central Ave - historic Rt. 66 as it is
promoted here. It was a big crowd - final estimates put the numbers at 4000
total. There were people in wheelchairs, people on bikes, kids in wagons.
There were lots of us old peace warriors, but lots of young people too.
There were signs, flags, chanting, honking support by passing cars.
At about 2:30 pm, with
Central blocked off, we took to the street and made our way slowly downtown,
about a 1 mile walk. In the lead were American, Peace symbol and photoearth
flags.. All the memories of earlier marches returned - shouts of what do we
want? responsive shouts PEACE, when do we want it? NOW. Singing "All we are
saying is give peace a chance." Waving signs, words of encouragement from
the sidewalk observers, and the sea of hands, raised up with the familiar V
for peace.
It took about 30 minutes
for the march, and the crowd stretched for blocks. We were escorted at
various times by police on horses, police on motorcycles, police in cars.
And the everpresent police helicopter. There had been rumors of violence -
at a Peace March? None materialized.
There were no more
speeches, no politicians to exhort us. We all knew what we were doing there
and our own personal as well as corporate whys. I came away feeling
energized, and reminded that we common people, not politicians or the media,
ultimately do have the right and the responsibility to express ourselves on
issues that will affect us. I'm not sure what effect all the peace marches
across the US and the world on January 18 will have in the end. But even the
New York Times in Sunday's editorial had to admit that at least large
numbers of Americans think it's time to reconsider our Iraq position, before
time runs out.
