Oct 5th was a wonderful day and great weather. All of our hearts are pounding with excitement from all the activities from the 5th. Rally participants started to show up about a half-hour before the rally started. We had no idea who would show up. But we knew that we had done outreach to high schools, and colleges, did email blasts, as well as had 3 ads running in the daily free newspaper – Metro. Everyone was very attentive, interested, and peaceful throughout the rally. They clapped and cheered loudly, but there was no inappropriate behavior.
We had scheduled three events for the day – a rally, a march, and an open-mike speak-out. From the very beginning of our setup time for the rally to the end of the third event there was a significant police presence. Some cops had on full uniforms, others had suits and police armbands.
Rally w/ Speakers
Speakers: Penn Faculty and Staff Against the War, 911 Truth, Pam Afrika, Da Truth (hip hop artist), Vets 4 Peace, an Iraq Vet, Kensington Welfare Rights Union, Sori Mori Korean Cultural Troupe, Journalism Professor, Dave Lindorff, Michael Berg, Green Party Representative, Alison Spoken word poet, Octavia (blues singer)
The speeches went off like clockwork. People spoke about the potential for a War in Iran, to the attacks on immigrants in this country and military bases across the country. There was one no-show and some people arrived late, but we were able to rearrange the order without too much hassle. All the speeches were interesting. I sat on the stage throughout and I could hear well. The only speech that didn’t come through was by the speaker from Penn Faculty and Staff Against the War. Towards the end, our sound system got mixed up, and the last speakers were not heard. He is soft-spoken and, unfortunately, the sound system picked that time to become faint. Perhaps others could hear him fine as my hearing is not great to begin with. We were overbooked on speakers so we had to move five of them to the speak-out portion of the day. This resulted in three of them deciding not to speak (as the audience had dwindled by that time); all three are WCW Philly organizers.
At the peak of the rally time we think we had around 450-500 people. It was annoying that we got almost no media coverage for the day. Channel 12 (WHYY) did show up to the rally, but I think it was pretty late in the rally by that time and some folks had left.
One odd thing was that slowly we all started to realize that two men with substantial cameras (one video and one still) were taking pictures. Yet they didn’t seem to be from a media outlet. At one point, one of our members went over and asked one of these photographers what media outlet he was with. He didn’t answer. We then asked what his name was. He didn’t answer. Finally we witnessed the two photographers getting into a police car. Dave Lindorff did a good job of investigating this further, and he learned that photographers were from the Counter-Terrorism Unit. Us – a permitted political rally? This is how the government is using their blank check to “counter” “terrorism” . Dave Lindorffs website is www.thiscantcantbehappening.net
Spirited March
After the rally we embarked on the second part of the day, which was the march. With our banner “The World Can’t Wait – Drive out the Bush Regime: Bring this to a Halt” – caught everyone’s attention, along with a car with signs all over it and a bullhorn at the back.
The march got off to a slow start (with the overabundance of speakers), but it was so exciting. Despite being denied a permit initially, our lawyers apparently prevailed and we were allowed to march down the middle of several major Philadelphia avenues and stop at 4 major corners to have impromptu open-mics. We made impromptu speeches and we yelled and screamed and cheered. One young man did a riotous dance at the front of the crowd back and forth in front of the banner. It was a show of pure youthful energy and it was fantastic. It drew attention to us and to our banner. Another attention grabber was the huge Spiral Q puppet. It was so large that three people were required to hold it up. It was a comical likeness of George W. Bush with a very long nose as befits a real liar. Two things really excited me about the march. One was that several very well dressed business people quietly gave us the thumbs up. Another was when we rounded the bend at 15th and JFK. We were chanting “Hey hey. Ho ho. The Bush Regime has got to go!” Suddenly all the people on the sidewalks were dancing to the beat. People joined the rally on the spot. Another popular chant: Join Us, Join Us, the World Can’t Wait, We don’t want your endless war, or police state.” After the march, many people commented to use, that they watched as people joined the rally on the spot. People in suits, high school students, even a clothing store got on their bull horns and started chanting with us.
Speak-Out back at the Rally Spot
The third part of the day was the speak-out. Unfortunately the late afternoon was pretty cool, almost cold. The speak-out attendance dwindled about mid-way through. However, the comments from the mic were really interesting and diverse. One woman spoke very loudly and passionately. A younger woman sat to her left and whispered her reminders whenever she forgot something they had wanted to cover. I thought that speaker was very intelligent and passionate as well as being obviously incensed by what is going on in the country. One of our organizers, Christine, gave a fascinating talk about Roger Ebert and how his reviews had turned her on to movies that increased her political awareness. I thought this was very clever and interesting.
One particularly exciting thing for me was when a young man who is not affiliated with World Can’t Wait got up and suggested that the audience members donate to World Can’t Wait. He said “this is really important, McDonalds can do without your $5.” I could have hugged him.
I could go on and on. I will truly never forget that day. I’m so glad we were able to enlist a World Can’t Wait member who is a professional videographer to take video of the event. He was there filming the whole day.
Anecdote
Having never taken part in any type of activism before, the events of October 5th left a lasting impression on me. I wanted to share one particular moment from the day that really touched me. It was during the march, as we were headed down Walnut street. We stopped at the intersection of Broad & Walnut, and everyone was chanting in unison “Join us join us, the world can’t wait””. I was at the front of the march, looking forward, not really paying attention to what was going on behind me. At that moment, I turned around, and it was if time was in slow motion; very surreal. I saw all of these faces; the passion, the anger, the outrage, the concern, the sadness. Faces exhibiting all of the feelings that I have felt about what is happening in our world, and in our country. It made me want to weep. I wanted to cry tears of joy, for all of us who had gathered together to show our concern for not only ourselves and our country, but also for our world, and our future.
