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The Washington Peace Rally
 | | (L-R) Leila Wood, Mike and Irene Landry, and Hans Reichardt stand outside the bus shortly after arriving in Washington. |
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By L.A. Steel
I am not a journalist nor do I pretend to be, and I am not approaching this article from a journalistic point of view; this has been done by countless others since the January 18 peace rally. I am writing as an observer and a documentary filmmaker and a writer with certain views and principles which may liberally salt and pepper this essay.
Leila Wood and I were honored by Irene Landry, founder of the Imagine Peace antiwar group from Litchfield, and Hans Reichardt, who generously offered to pay our way so we could create a program on the Washington rally to be seen statewide on our affiliate local community access stations. Hans, my friend and program sponsor in the Litchfield-Torrington CableVision franchise, is a builder and a member of the Torrington Board of Education. He is a formidable peace advocate in the Litchfield and Winsted antiwar groups and a great inspiration to all who know him.
It was a bitter cold Connecticut night, minutes before midnight on January 17, when a small band of sojourners gathered together at Litchfield High School to board a chartered bus destined to the soul center of America—Washington, DC. Irene and Mike Landry of Imagine Peace received all of us with their warm smiles and welcome. I hold this couple in the highest esteem for their responsible and well-organized efforts.
 | | Part of the crowd that gathered to listen to the speakers at the Washington Monument. |
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I am taking liberty as I attempt to describe the spirit and mood of my fellow travelers, as there seemed an overwhelming sense of independent resolve amongst the group. Perhaps it was the late hour or the anxiety of the moment of first meetings, but each of the forty or more who boarded the bus seemed content just being there and resolved to their action of visible protest. That spirit was the common spirit I later recognized amongst the hundreds of thousands of demonstrators I recorded on camera in the midst of the rally in Washington.
Fractured, inconsistent and biased media reports estimated a gathering of 30,000 to 500,000 demonstrators. As an eyewitness to the sea of humanity, 350,000 would be my most conservative estimate. I captured on camera the mile-long river of protestors along the ten-block parade route from the Washington Monument to the Navy Yard, where thousands of buses were waiting to take the marchers home. Leila and I spoke to many of these tired and determined citizens who marched in the peaceful parade with banners and bullhorns, drums and tambourines, while others shouted marching chants of "NO MORE WAR!" or "WE WON'T GO FOR TEXACO!"
There were no confrontations of note with pro-war groups other than one very insignificant, small group of white-collared, short-haired "Young Republicans" waving a banner from a balcony near the roof of an apartment house on Independence Avenue. They were drinking white wine from plastic disposable glasses and shouting to the marchers while displaying a poorly made sign that said "Hippies Go Home!" They exemplified the spoiled American yuppie brat, 20-somethings, whom everyone in the world loves to hate. Leila and I and probably most of the parents in the march would have loved to have the opportunity to put them over our knees and spank the arrogance out them, but we all remembered that this was a nonviolent protest.
The peace demonstrators were children in strollers, men and women in wheelchairs, mothers, grandmothers, fathers and grandfathers with their sons and daughters, brothers and sisters all walking together side by side, many in reverent silence and many in hypnotic step to a single drummer. I was witnessing the spirit of America from all states in the union. There were banners and signs from Florida and Texas, Maine and Minnesota, groups from all fifty states and many countries, including Australia and Germany—all of whom had traveled just to participate in this rally. These hundreds of thousands of protestors banded together to protest the insanity of Bush’s foreign policy and his insane plans for world domination and the invasion of Iraq.
 | | The line of marchers stretched over ten blocks long from the Capitol to the Navy Yard. |
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There was only one musical voice on the speaker's platform, that of the brave and forthright Patti Smith, who gave an acoustic rendition with one lone guitarist of "Power to the People." This noticeable lack of musicians in the great American antiwar, anti-racism protest might attest to a lack of courage and cooperation, and even apathy, amongst the great songwriters and poets of the sixties and seventies.
The brave and determined demonstrators who marched on January 18 could have used an anthem or two. Even the powerful and inspired spiritual chorus of Martin Luther King’s "We Shall Overcome" was not heard. Also notably missing was any large group of black Americans. I walked through the sea of demonstrators to see what minority groups were represented and disappointedly realized that there were very few. Leila and I did come across a group of ten black American men who were walking away from the protest on the sidewalk, who seemed angry at the demonstration and would not speak to us when I asked to videotape their views on the demonstration.
After having walked through the sea of banners and signs in and around the perimeters of the protest rally, I noted that the average age of the demonstrators was between 25 and 65, and that the crowd was made up of mostly white middle-class Americans, with no great presence of any single minority group. I began to wonder if this rally marked the beginning of a new American revolution—a revolution of the American middle class. Members of this great silent majority of white middle-class America were silently, and without violence or musical fanfare, marching side by side with friends and family to protest the injustice, hypocrisy and insanity of the illegitimate Bush administration and its racist and mad militaristic policies of global domination and economic oppression of the American citizen.
The great former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark gave a rousing speech and indictment against G.W. Bush, with a list of seven legitimate and constitutionally legal reasons for the impeachment of Bush. (Clark announced a new website, <impeachbush.com>.) This great and courageous speech for American freedoms and justice was followed by a brilliant and impassioned speech by Al Sharpton. Though many in the media scoff at Reverend Sharpton’s bid for the presidency, I and many others who heard him speak were genuinely moved by the passion and eloquence of his message.
Al Sharpton was followed by Jesse Jackson, who wore a long black coat and black, broad-rimmed hat. His tall, lone presence loomed over the podium as a noon shadow, but something was missing in his speech that was so very present in the words of Al Sharpton, Ramsey Clark and others. There was a sense of disillusionment, a slight sense of despair, perhaps a thread of self-consciousness or loss of faith, and what appeared to be his total misreading of the intense resolve of the people in the audience. White Americans were standing before him in the wind and frigid temperature because of their desire to honor Martin Luther King and to stand up for their own rights as Americans to protest racism and war, which were the themes of the International Answer Rally. Many who looked forward to hearing a brilliant Jesse Jackson speech, equal to or even surpassing his 1992 speech at the Democratic Convention that mesmerized the nation, were disappointed. I hope he will reclaim his rightful place in the heart of American politics.
This rally was also for racial justice in tribute to Martin Luther King. Perhaps it was wrong to piggyback such an important tribute with the antiwar protest, but Martin Luther King’s message was not only against racial injustice, but also against violence and war. His great life and achievements were honored by all at the rally, and the presence of so many white middle-class Americans is proof that Martin Luther King’s dream is near fulfillment.
I made my pilgrimage to DC to document this rally for my television viewers and to make my own statement for peace and racial harmony. I wanted to honor the great and noble sacrifices made by Martin Luther King and our Founding Fathers and the millions of sons and daughters who have suffered and died fighting the forces of evil that have threatened this country and still threaten us.
Americans will always despise tyrants who, by promoting racial hatred and fear through media propaganda, seize their illegal power and then oppress their own people economically and with unjust laws and police action, all the while building their great military machines for global domination on the backs of a once free and prosperous people.
George W. Bush has declared war on the world by declaring war on terrorism. He has declared war on his own people through his mad expenditures of billions of dollars in his insane quest for global domination.
By now most reading this article have seen the rally or read and heard about it and perhaps spoken with people who were there, but from all that I have heard and read and seen, nothing has quite captured the remarkable feeling of power and freedom that was expressed by the hundreds of thousands of demonstrators on January 18 in Washington, DC. There was a sense of standing in protest against the most powerful government the world has ever known, as well as that feeling one has as a citizen of the world’s greatest country, created by the voices and passions of a free people. I walked freely without fear of torture, imprisonment, interrogation or confiscation of my camera and passed by standing armed guards who lined the parade route, smiling and courteous and professionally securing the safety of the marchers and their freedom of expression as well as the country and capital itself. I spoke to several as easily as I spoke to the person marching next to me.
Mr. Bush received a black eye on January 18 and hopefully an uppercut or two from the hundreds of thousands who marched against the mindless policies of his administration. To paraphrase Thomas Jefferson, a free nation must have a revolution every twenty or thirty years to preserve the sanctity of liberty and justice, to depose any despot who may deceptively achieve the throne of power and oppress the populace to retain that power. I believe that the framers of the Constitution would have marched at the lead of the January 18 peace rally and that their great and noble spirits were there in the hearts of each protestor. After witnessing this great march of patriotism, I believe the wisdom that founded this country will prevail in exposing and deposing the tyranny of G.W. Bush and his oligarchy of oil executives.
For those who may worry about the lack of respect of the protestors for our veterans and for our military men and women, I can attest that no one with whom I spoke degraded the armed forces. No signs or banners that I saw disgraced the American soldier. Many veterans marched in this protest in support of the antiwar movement. It is Mr. Bush who disgraces the American soldier and their families and our nation by forcing them to fight and sacrifice for an unjust war.
My video footage of the Washington Peace Rally will be seen in three parts or as a 90-minute special to be aired on your local community access stations. Please note the time and dates of the L.A. Steel Show in your local papers.
Also, as of March 4, the new L.A. Steel Show will be on Q103.3 radio each Tuesday from 10 p.m.-midnight. Entertainers, authors or activists who would like to be on television or radio as guests of the L.A. Steel Show should write to: L.A. Steel, PO Box 127, Salisbury, CT 06068; or e-mail <lasteeltv@yahoo.com>.
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