protest yesterday (sunday, folks, since in my mind it's still monday now, at quarter of one in the morning):

the new york city gathering was generally quite good. it was huge, for one thing, especially since it seems to me that proactive (as opposed to reactive) protests are tough to commit to. it was also very on-message (just to use a favorite bushism)--not so many appeals to free mumia or bring down capitalism, and more attention paid to the real crime being committed: blood for oil money, murder as campaign strategy. the format kept things fairly consistently interesting: speakers beginning at one o'clock, each granted one or two minutes (though many ran to five or so) all the way through until five. the one rather bizarre note was the inclusion as the last three speakers of people only tangentially interested in halting war in the middle east: AIM, free-leonard-peltier types, who reminded us, accurately but ineffectively, that the federal government has not only engaged in imperialism abroad. well, right, but does that help us with today's goal? not so much.

i was particularly impressed, actually, with susan sarandon and tim robbins. sarandon gave phone numbers and advice (and props to paul wellstone, who deserves them) and encouraged us all to "make trouble" (yeah!!!). robbins very accurately pointed out that this peace movement is not a defense of, for example, al qaeda. he made the point that fundamentalism, and any equation of violence with holiness, destroys things we love (he mentioned here "...arts, music, independent women..."). and then said, very powerfully i thought, that the current fundamentalist movement in the united states is "a fundamentalism of business." well put.

so now i have my very own "dissent is patriotic" pin and a new sense of solidarity, which is nice, since i've been feeling outnumbered, watching the major media.

also on that point: the new york times failed to cover the story on the front page of its site. unbefuckinglievable. but it makes me all the more aware that there really is something odd going on with the american media. so unreflective and unquestioning...i don't get it. msnbc was running reverent little banners across the bottom of bush's gag-inducing speech tonight. i had to leave.


...and now i have to sleep. it's something i haven't been doing enough of.