Just got back from...

[catherineldf]

a relatively lively anti-war demo in, of all places, Edina. For those of you who don't live in the Twin Cities area, Edina is a mostly white and very well to do suburb of Minneapolis. They just don't 'do' protests, let alone tolerate them in the main shopping district. However it's on my way home and Jana had an errand to run so we thought we'd go do our bit.
And there we all were, some 75 or so of us, chanting and waving signs, freezing our butts off. There was a surprising amount of support, especially given how conservative the area is. There were a bunch of other protests around town in other areas too so I'm guessing they were better attended.
My manager's son got shipped out a few weeks back and several of our neighbors have shipped out as well. One of the guys I work with managed to get his kid back in more or less one piece but he's on call since he's in the Guard so he's not sure how long he'll be back. Somehow I don't remember the last Gulf War hitting so close to home; almost everyone I know knows someone who's in Iraq or Afghanistan doing and experiencing things most of them will regret for the rest of their lives.
I just realized this is something like my eighteenth year of protesting various actions by my government against other countries or groups of people within its borders. I hope the need to keep protesting this particular horror ends soon. Peace.

Comments

I was just talking about that

[evilroygato.livejournal.com]

the other day; how this version of the "iraq war" is having so much more of an impact on most levels. It may be because we're older and know a wider range of folk than before...but Erin + I know many people affected personally by the war too. And since there's no draft, the same troops just keep getting recycled over + over again. It's horrifying. My Aunt's partner, Mike, is going back to Iraq soon himself. And my aunt may be deployed again too. They're not reservists, they're civilian mechanics hired by the military...so they won't see the same type of action...but it sucks everywhere.

I'm glad you got a chance to go to an anti-war gathering. Sadly, despite its history, Iowa City seems pretty flat in recent years. Nothing like the good 'ol early 90's when we pretended we looked DEAD and blocked Rockwell. :) Times like these, I actually miss New Wave. Maybe I'll have to go back + Look at my pictures from D.C. 2005 for moral support.

[gypsy1969.livejournal.com]

We had about that many people in our town at the rally last weekedn. There were 3000 t-shirt supposedly though. We were thinking of going but didn't, we didn't find out until the last minute. A lot of people said they would have gone if it was better advertised, but apparently the word didn't get around in time.

The last Gulf war had more substance than this one.