It was a cold, windy, and rainy January day.
By 3:30 people had already begun milling about restlessly carrying their signs around Pioneer Courthouse Square. People young and old were gathered, including about 40 Black Bloc.
AT 4:00 pm, Steve Ulrich began playing music. His first song appropriately referenced the weather, which was dismal.
Fifteen minutes later, Tom Zagone, of Progressive Christians for Public Activism delivered a speech pointing out that the values that Americans hold dear, Christians and non-Christians alike, are not the values held by the neo-conservatives whom are running this country.
Then Patrick Dodd played “Was it a Lie” and “When Caesar met the Goddess” which got the crowd riled up. He was followed by Matt Reeder, a Green Party candidate for congress in 2006, who delivered an impassioned speech that was well received.
This was followed by a few words from Stu Sugarman, who has defended many whom are given the unfortunate label of eco-terrorist. He spoke about first amendment rights, and the difference between what the administration says to the media, and what they are allowed to say in courtrooms.
Headlining, The Sandpeople with special guest Atlas got everybody, from the Elderly Veterans for Peace to the young Black Bloc dancing to their politically charged, conscious hip hop sound.
While they played, over half of the crowd gathered to board the light rail (MAX) to cross the river. They gathered at Holladay Park under a giant 10′ x 12′ sign that said “State of Emergency” and “Without a warrant, King George spied. Let’s drown out this madman’s lies!”
From there, they marched into neighborhoods in Northeast and Southeast Portland, banging pots and pans, yelling into megaphones, blowing whistles, and yelling the chants: “Bush step down!”, and “Drop Bush, not bombs!”, and “Stand up! Stand up! Take your country back!”
From downtown, people marched into nearby neighborhoods with megaphones, pots, pans, instruments, whistles, and all sorts of noise. After they left, some people came late who wanted to march. While they complained that there were no marches left (they had arrived ten minutes after the last march had left) we arranged one for them on the spot.
All told, about 30 people gathered to march into the Northwest neighborhoods. However, some of the people for whom this march had been organized got angry and left in a huff. In spite of this, the march took off with a megaphone, a march leader, a march coordinator with an armband (these are people who were briefed on how to coordinate the march so that the police would go through them first before taking action against the protestors), and a cameraperson (myself).
This march was quite successful, going into the Pearl District, which is an area of town that is densely populated with the upper middle class. Many of them came to their windows to see what was going on in their neighborhood while they were trying to watch King George on the babblebox.
Then, all of the marchers met at the Lucky Lab Brew Pub at 7PM, which was open to minors until 9PM. They watched the State of the Union wrap up on a TV covered with Caution ribbons and signs that said “Liar.” There were a lot of bridges built between activists and organizations, and a great deal of community was built.
Anyway, it was a very successful event. We had Channel 2, Channel 8, KBOO, KXL, and Indymedia.org Radio. Cyd Manro had been on the Thom Hartmann show in the morning (which EcoTV filmed). Hundreds attended, thousands were reached.
Portland, OR Chapter, WorldCantWait.ORG