MONDAY, OCTOBER 14, 2002

Happy Thanksgiving to my Canadian friends and readers. May you find much to be thankful for in your lives. I, for one, am simply thankful to be home. I've just returned from one of the most discomfiting "peace" demonstrations I've ever attended.

George W. Bush was in town--Dearborn to be exact--to speak at a $1000 a plate Republican fundraising dinner this afternoon at 4:30 PM. Needless to say, the peace community organized a demonstration to let him what we think of his planned war on Iraq. The usual, right? Wrong. What we didn't know was that another group was rallying to tell the President what they think of his intention to "take out" (kill) Saddam Hussein, and their perspective was very different from ours.

Our demonstration started in the normal way. A group of us met in the shopping center parking lot as planned, got our signs in order, and prepared to make our way over to the Ritz Carlton Hotel where Bush would be speaking. I delighted in seeing lots and lots of my old peace friends, as well as three of my O Beautiful Gaia singing sisters, Julia, Sandy and Sooz. As always, I scooted around taking pictures of folks with their signs. Here are some of those I saw in the parking lot and others I saw once we'd started demonstrating. By the way, I have my dear friend Sooz to thank for many of today's pictures.

Be Creative. No War
A young family holding Green Party and multi-colored peace signs
Diplomacy Not War
No War For Oil and Pre-emption = Terrorism
Bush, We Don't Want Your Dirty War and Stop U.S. Aggression
No War
Make Peace With the People of Iraq and Justice Not Revenge
No War For Oil. Don't Murder Our Children
Make Solar Power Not War and Mr. President, What Would Jesus Do?
Sane People of Earth: Speak Out
Peace for the World's Homeland

Soon it was time to walk/scoot across the parking lot to the hotel. I don't think anyone was surprised to see police barricades already in place to keep us protesters away from the President and the hotel entrance. But things were set up in a respectful way and the police were just doing their job, so we gathered without complaint on the grassy verge where they'd arranged for us to stand. I needed strong arms to lift my scooter La Lucha  over the curb and onto the grass, and found folks eager to help. Once there, I scooted up to the barricade and positioned myself in the front row. Two young Muslim women were beside me and one of them helped tie my sign on the front of the barricade. Sooz, Sandy and I began to sing peace songs, starting with the "Circle Chant." This  friendly crowd readily joined in as we moved on to songs they knew, like "We Shall Overcome." We soon had a wonderful songfest going. Many gray-haired folks in the crowd said it reminded them of their Vietnam protest days. Julie Beutel, who had led songs at last week's demonstrations, was close by and continued the singing after we'd run out of songs. As I say, it was a mellow, good-natured demo. But not for long.

I began to hear angry-sounding chants coming from the opposite end of the crowd, and a group of men started walking through, handing out flyers and saying in strong language that Saddam was evil and had to be "taken out." They supported what the President intended to do. It was members of the Iraqi community who feel passionately that Iraq must be rid of Saddam Hussein and the only way to do it is by the U.S. going in and taking care of it. They support war on their own country if it means the end of Saddam.

Whew. Their numbers and passion grew, so that the police moved them across the street to their own demonstration area. At that moment the whole idea of a peace rally was lost in each side trying to out-chant the other. I'm ashamed to say that I fell into it myself. As if we were enemies. Bush was practically forgotten, except for one immature man with a bullhorn who kept shouting hateful things about him. When that fellow placed himself next to me, I asked him not to yell such things because, with a bullhorn, it made it sound like he was speaking for all of us, and he was not. He respected my request and started picking up on the chants that folks were starting around us, chants like, "One, two, three, four...we don't want Bush's war" and "Hell no, we won't go; we won't fight for Texaco!"

Needless to say, the press and media were in their element, running around taking pictures, interviewing people on both "sides" and setting up their network news reporters for on-the-scene broadcasts in front of either us anti-war folks or the Iraqi "pro-war" contingent . Again I'm not proud that I played into it by chanting louder whenever the TV cameras closed in.

My friend Sooz kept her wits about her though, and said in the middle of it all, "I'm not comfortable with this. I'm just going to remain silent." Her friend Ann actually went across the street to try to talk with some of the folks and find out what they were thinking. She came back saying, "They just want the U.S. to go in and take Saddam out without going to war." Sooz and Ann were ready to go back and spend more time across the street, but I was not comfortable joining them. They soon decided it was time to go home. I stayed, but chose to stand in silence, hoping to be a more peaceful presence than I'd been earlier. When I mentioned to a photographer whom I've known from jazz festivals and such, how sad it was that we appeared to be against the Iraqi people across the street, he replied, "Yes. It's too bad there are only two sides to a street." Wise statement.

When I saw that I was no longer of benefit to the gathering, I left. On the way to my car, I stopped near a vanload of young activists--some of whom had been drummers at the demo--and asked if any of them could help put my scooter in my car. Paul graciously volunteered. As we walk/scooted across the parking lot, I asked how he felt about the demonstration. He said, "I guess I was disappointed. It wasn't exactly what I'd expected." I asked what he meant and he replied, "Well, you know the people across the street? I mean like we weren't really enemies but it sure seemed like it."

Besides being disappointed in my own need to drown out the voices that differed from my own, I now see how ignorant I am about Iraq and its people. Where I imagined every Iraqi person, wherever they lived, would be against this horrendous war on their country, I found there are different ways of seeing things no matter who you are and where you were born. I have so much to learn.

©2002 Patricia Lay-Dorsey. Please use with attribution.