the march

Late Friday night Rachel and I took the bus to D.C. to be a part of the March on Washington to protest the war. Before it started, we met with Annie for coffee and spent a few hours catching up- it was so nice to see her in person but it's hard to only visit with a best friend for a little while!

The energy there was amazing- the crowd was a mix of all different ages and ethnicities, and it's just such a cool feeling to be one of a crowd of thousands who are all in the same place for the same reason and feel so passionately about something. There was a rally before the march with a lot of wonderful speakers- at one point a group of people came on stage (including Cindy Sheehan and some of her family) and took turns saying who they were and who they had lost in the war- it seemed like everyone said "I lost my only son" or "only daughter" and it was absolutely heartbreaking to see. My favorite speakers were the group of Iraq Veterans for Peace. They know better than anyone what's going on (and said that Petraeus was acting as an appointee of the president and not telling the truth- that we are occupying a country that does not want us there)- and they led the protest march and began the die-in where four thousand people lay down in front of the capitol building in memorial of fallen soldiers.

About a thousand anti-protesters stood on the sidewalks and yelled at the marchers- many had flags and "Support Our Troops" signs, and yelled at the marchers that we weren't supporting the troops by protesting. And I thought, IRAQ VETERANS are leading the protest march! And so many of the protesters are protesting the war because they support the troops, and were waving American flags just as high as the anti-protesters. I can respect their beliefs, and of course I respect that they support the troops even though we have different ideas of what "supporting them" means, but the anti-protesters who stood there and screamed, "All we are saying is give soap a chance!" "Take a shower, you dirty hippies!" and so on really blew my mind. That's the best these people could come up with? The protesters were protesting war as an institution, and those anti-protesters were making personal attacks that were just so silly and uncreative and most of all outdated. But! That's the beauty of free speech. I'm going to try to put my pictures up soon.

Rachel and I got back very late last night (and thank you Beth and Paul for picking us up!) and so we weren't very excited about going to Senior Cafe this morning. We went to the Betty Knox housing complex, which neither of us had been to yet (it's the other Senior Cafe location, but whereas Smith Towers has elderly residents, Betty Knox also has disabled residents), and I had such a good time- the residents get a cold pack of food to eat later, and they stay for coffee and a hot lunch. The people there were hilarious and really sweet and genuine- and it feels like a more personal setting than Community Meals because it's a much smaller crowd of people and they are all neighbors in their complex.

Tonight we had a lovely lasagna dinner and fancy dessert in honor of our one-month anniversary of meeting each other. I love our little family!