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San Francisco Peace March |
October 26, 2002
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, on this cool, sunny day about 42,000 of us marched from Justin Herman Plaza to the San Francisco Civic Center in a rally organized by International A.N.S.W.E.R. to oppose U.S. President Bush's proposed war against Iraq.
The march was a combination of seriousness, fun, and love, with a great deal of creativity in signage, costuming, and approach. Speakers at times sounded quite strident, while among marchers there were more people smiling and socializing than acting grim and determined. In my opinion we need to emphasize the laughter and creativity, the long-haul building of community and alternatives. There are going to be a lot of foolish wars, and we may be forced to tolerate them as we rebuild the ground of peace along with alternative political and economical structures that circumvent "business as usual as killing".
Here are photographs I took as we marched, divided into several sections:
Here are a few very short video clips captured on my "still" camera, in two different formats:
| "Real" streaming format (fast download) | "Windows" .wvm format (better quality, may not play on all systems) |
| Short clip, near beginning of march | Short clip, near beginning of march |
| At Embarcadero BART station, marchers gathering | At Embarcadero BART station, marchers gathering |
| Heading toward Justin Herman plaza, the beat picks up | Heading toward Justin Herman plaza, the beat picks up |
| Crowds form at Justin Herman plaza | Crowds form at Justin Herman plaza |
| Full crowds at Justin Herman plaza | Full crowds at Justin Herman plaza |