well, we made it! It was a gruelling road trip, but sort of fun, too. Erin, Steve + I all got on quite well, and everyone brought great music for the car, which helped our spirits.

We left Friday morning at 5 AM, and we sped through the midwest as the sun rose. We made excellent time, being in Indiana by noon. Ohio was the longest and most dull state, and just as I was beginning to feel itchy to get out of the car, we climbed into beautiful Pennsylvania. Wow, what a different landscape! So much more lush and green than the midwest is, especially this year, with our drought. it was a relief to the eyes, and our windows rolled down to rush in some fresh moist air.

We reached D.C. by 10 PM, and without too much trouble, found Steve’s friend, K, who generously put us up for the weekend. She lives near Capitol Hill, so we were close to the action! Washington D.C. is an interesting city. The buildings are so beautiful, and there’s obviously so much history there. But at the same time. Maybe it was the mood of the march; maybe it was 5 years of this horrible horrible administration, but the city itself seems layered with grime, depression and just..corruption. There seems to be a large class stratification, with lots of young wealthy (white) people speeding about in SUVs, working on the Hill and, possibly getting their souls sucked out. Everyone in the service industry seems to pe a person of color. Every park we passed had people living in it, sleeping under trees or on benches. This is the symbol of our nation. The extremely rich and extremely poor uncomfortably co-existing in a seeminly perpetual downward spiral of an empire. How can this grossness, this greed, sustain itself, tramping on the skulls of others? It simply cannot. Things are beginning to change, I hope.

On Saturday morning we were up early, and headed for coffee before going over to gather with hundreds of thousands of others at the Ellipse and begin the march.

We stood amongst the masses for about 2 hours before the march began; this gave us a chance to weave through the crowds and see all the different people who came. There were contingents from all over the country, every state seemed represented. People of all ages, all races everywhere. This was one of the most populous and diverse marches I’ve been to. It was fun to read all the different signs..people conveying anger through pictures, humor and wit. There were musicians, performers and radical cheerleaders. People were singing, chanting and trading stories.

When the march finally started, it moved very slowly because of the huge crowd. One organizer said that it took over 3 hours for the whole march to go by. We marched past the U.S. Treasury building where we saw “Billionaires for Bush”, who’ve been quite entertaining. They were handing out free (fake) cash, “because “the deficit isn’t big enough”.

The march stopped for a very long time outside the White House. It almost seemed unreal to see it, even though I’d been there before several times. And even though we all knew George was out of town (scaredy cat!), we stayed for over an hour yelling, chanting, shaking our fists..5 years of frustration built up finally had an outlet. There it was, the ulitmate symbol of evil, greedy stupidity.
Suddenly thousands of people were shouting “get out of our house! get out of our house!” It was a powerful moment. Guards in black suits came crawling out of the roof of the White House like devil’s minions and surveiled the crowd with Huge binoculars. They flashed large automatic weapons. Helicopters flew overhead, having dogged the march since we began. For a while it was quite tense. We were obviously making them quite nervous, and the ranks of D.C. Police stationed in front of us increased. People were becoming more agitated on both sides, with chats ranging from “fuck bush” to “shame! shame!” Finally, some march organizers came by and pleaded us to “keep moving” because the march was bottlenecking. As we turned, we saw a contingent of coffins representing dead U.S. soldiers was passing, and the crowd became pretty quiet. Most of us moved on.

Back at the Mall, we wandered for a bit, just looking, seeing, and being with people. Very nice. Finally our empty bellies and tired feet drove us back to H.Q. where we ate and rested until midnight when we went back to the mall for the free Le Tigre show. Le T. was amazing! I love all of them, and it was so inspiring to see them run out with their “stop bush” outfits and perform, for our dancing pleasure, their best songs. The stage was facing the Washington Monument and at one point, Kathleen Hannah talked about how ironic it was that she was performing to a giant phallus. “someone should spray paint a big set of balls on it!” she laughed. This drew many cheers.

On Sunday morning, we packed up our snax and headed home. The trip home was a bit slower because we were totally spent by this point. We made it back to Iowa City by 1 AM and happily crawled into our waiting beds.

You can see the rest of the pictures here, if you like:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/textbandit/sets/1035924/

So the 3 of us (me, steve, erin) are leaving tomorrow at 5 AM for D.C. to join thousands of others who are pissed off at the administrtion’s many ills, including but not limited to: lying, stealing, cheating, killing and torturing.

Many thanks to Katie in D.C. who is kindly putting us up at her home. Pictures will get posted next week, as well as the requisite road-trip stories. Wish us luck.

Here is a list of those whom we represent on the march, who are not able to join us (we wish you were here):

shelly ———> thank you for the atlas..um, without that, we’d be nowhere
anne ———> “I’ll be there howling with you!”
judi
amit
hannah
chris ———> thank you for the CD!
mel
eliot
layna
pj
gordon
jill
kari
julien
april D.
marcia
jean ———> thank you for the chocolate!
marjorie
brian C.
april F.
john F.
mike
monica
margaret
peg
sylvia
sarah
sara
megan H.
corrie
ellen
linda
bob
paula
brenda
sharon
sara C.
kathy
brian F.
sabra
andy
g’ma alice
jenny
kristen
michelle
susan
lia
laren
megan V.
kevin
gypsy
amy
ollie
conrad
allison
noah

please feel free to add yourself in comments if you are not on the list.

so I spent most of the weekend working on various chores: refinishing a coffee table, cleaning the house, working on a website and enjoying my free time. my lawn had turned into a frightening tangle since the lawn mower died, so I finally plunked down the change for a new mower. i’ve never actually had to pay for a mower in my life, so i feel like i’m doing pretty good!

On Saturday, The Pirate + I went to see “Mi Amigo Machuca” at the Bijou. What a great film. About 2 young boys living in Chile in 1973, from two very different socio-economic backgrounds, how they become friends and how the September 11 coup in that country affects their friendship.

The director did a great job of flavoring it with the 1970’s! I remember patterns and decor similar to that from my childhood..that very same aura, if you will. the characters were well-built and the story line totally engrossing. hard to get across in this blog-medium how it made me feel (i’m much better at one on one writing!) but it made me feel many sad things and yet, many elations as well. also, it has an excellent soundtrack!

The story also sparked a need to read a bit about the Chile’s history during that time, so I dragged out Howard Zinn and re-read his chapter on the 1970’s, along with a chapter in “The Trial of Henry Kissinger” all about the U.S. involvement in overthrowing Allende. Which reminded me of my earlier post about the comic by El Fisgon.

On Sunday I puttered about the house and listened to a great episode of This American Life on the radio. Have I mentioned how much I love radio? I don’t have teevee (except for movie watching) so I get most of my media input from the I’net, the radio and newspapers. Anyway, yesterday’s program was different people’s experiences in New Orleans last week, and the storm and massive destructo disruption of their lives. It’s highly worth a listen, so here’s A Link to that (note: real audio!).

And although it is no longer the weekend, we living here in i-town will be treated to a show by The Gossip at the ever lovely Gabe’s Oasis, which is so crusty inside and out, that it can only still be standing because of all the many years of band stickers lining the walls. Beth Ditto is my hero. It will be loud, and smoky and perfect and fun.

It’s been hard to post anything in the last week or so, as I’ve been mired in the news of what’s going on in the storm-ravaged, and Bush ravaged, South. I am just continually horrified. And I tend to be a terrible cynic anyways!

Yet as I’ve watched this horror unfolding, I’ve found myself stunned again and again not only by the enormous toll that Hurricane Katrina wrought upon the Gulf Coast, in lives lost and environmental damage, but by the complete and utter lack of empathy and action on the part of Our Government. Just when I think people can’t be more callous than before, I am proven wrong.

I see also that a subsidiary of Haliburton has the contract for Hurricane cleanup. Gee, what a suprise!

*sigh*. This is only late 2005. We have 3 years of this to go. I was talking with a longtime friend last week and we agreed that we both have felt so much older in the last 5 years..How is this country going to survive until 2008? Or longer??

Apparently, others are wondering the same thing.

Some buddies + I (and possibly my mother!) are planning on attending the giant March on Washington D.C. over the weekend of Sept. 24th. If nothing else, hopefully we can join in solidarity with our fellow citizens and regain some hope for the future. Plus we’ll get to yell a lot, and dance