We love it enough to try to save it

I was going to write a little post about marching with the Austin peace demonstrators this past Saturday, that is until I read NYT's columnist Bob Herbert's column today on his experience at the March on Washington. As you would fully expect from Herbert, he does his usual stellar job of thoughtful writing in his piece. But all that would have been needed to tell the story of our Texas rally is to replace "Washington" in Herbert's byline with "Austin" and the rest pretty much would have fit up perfectly with our experience here.

We, too, had a "a beautiful sunlit blue" sky to cheer us on, and although the Capitol building we had in view as we marched up Congress Street in Austin wasn't the one housing the folks enabled to stop the war and start the formal investigative process to impeach Bush, it was still obvious to all that we were marching straight to the doors of governmental power. Here's what I mean:


Photo by me


Not as much as an "emotional backdrop" as the Capitol building in Herbert's description, but upon first noticing the above view over the heads of the protesters in front of them as they marched up the street, I'd bet that most folks in the Austin rally readily imagined they were shoulder-to-shoulder with the marchers in DC.

Herbert went on to eloquently write in his column:

You can say what you want about the people opposed to this wretched war in Iraq, try to stereotype them any way you can. But you couldn’t walk among them for more than a few minutes on Saturday without realizing that they love their country as much as anyone ever has. They love it enough to try to save it.

I found his words startling as they exactly describe the very same realization that came to me at several points as I walked among the protesters taking pictures and saying hello. We, too, had "...gray-haired women with digital cameras and young girls with braces...guys trying to look cool in knit caps and shades and balding baby boomers trading stories about Vietnam...many ordinary families...a good-natured crowd" (Go here to view images I took of some Austin peace marchers that fit Herbert's description to a "T".)

The folks marching in Austin "love their country as much as anyone ever has," too. It's the evil monsters running it that we despise.

And the goal of the Austin protesters was no different:

The goal of the crowd was to get the attention of Congress and persuade it to move vigorously to reverse the Bush war policies. But the thought that kept returning as I watched the earnestly smiling faces, so many of them no longer young, was the way these protesters had somehow managed to keep the faith. They still believed, after all the years and all the lies, that they could make a difference. They still believed their government would listen to them and respond.

Yes, we most certainly can make a difference. The people forced the politicians and power brokers to end the war in Vietnam and the people will do it again with this latest folly, too. As Herbert wrote, "The public is way out in front of the politicians on this issue." And we all can see lots of those politicians pedaling furiously to catch up.

Thank you, Mr. Herbert, for writing such a thoughtful and articulate post for me.