The day started late for me, Lady and KT. AK [a legal observer for the day] who left early for some last minute training called to tell us to bring food as there was none anywhere near the march. And water too. We stopped off around George Washington University to pick up some subs [aka hoagies] at Lindy's. Good eats. We got down to where the IMF/World Bank buildings were and ran into our first group of protestors, but they were not the group we were looking for; we were looking for the anti-war march, these were the IMF/World Bank protestors. The DC Metro Police fortified the entire area. Blockades around both buildings, sanitation trucks closing off the streets. When the marchers came across a truck, they all yelled in unison, "Whose truck? — Our truck!" and then proceeded to climb over around and under the trucks. We left that group to head south to the Mall area.
We were met by a seemingly neverending stream of people as we walked past the White House and the Treasury Department. It was right by the Treasury Department where we saw a commotion on a side street. I heard cheers so I immediately started to run towards a group of people getting out of cars to try and get a shot of whomever it was. Out came Rev. Jesse Jackson and Gold Star Parent, Cindy Sheehan, arm in arm in solidarity. Cheers went through the crowd of thousands right around them in waves. Word got around very quickly telling of who had just joined the march. We continued deeper into the march, walking against the grain, to get to the staging area where AK and some other observers were situated. We passed a long line of photos. 8.5" x 11" pieces of paper were suspended from a string, one for each member of the Armed Forces who had died in service in Iraq. By about 1.30p, we made our way to them after snaking through scores of people pressed up against fencing seemingly placed to impede what should have been a much easier foot traffic pattern.
Soon after we met up with the rest of our party [now about nine people] it started to drizzle. And then a little harder than that. I stuffed my D70 into my bag and took out my turkey club and began to have myself my lunch. It took a solid forty-five minutes to get back out onto the street and join the march. The rain subsided before we got to the street.
We turned north and to our left, I spotted a group of about ten people who had climbed on top of a stone entrance marker [about fifteen feet high] and draped a flag, upside down, in front of them. Upside down denoting a distress symbol. They chanted to the marchers below them "Show me what democracy looks like!" And we yelled back "This is what democracy looks like!" It went on as we made our way by them, a great way to join the march celebrating our right to gather in such a manner.
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