January 18, 2003
Ouroboros
Perhaps the defining moment of today's antiwar rally and march in downtown Portland was when word began circulating, as the tail end of the march was waiting to squeeze out of the South Park Blocks and into the streets, that the front end of the march had just re-entered the South Park Blocks at the other end.
That's what happens when Portland witnesses what some claim was the largest political demonstration in its history. That's what happens when a march extends for nineteen blocks.
In a twist that is forever rare when it comes to American protest events, police, media, and organizers essentially agree on the size of the event: Somewhere between 20,000 and 30,000 people.
That's what happens when Portland witnesses a political demonstration which included a substantial number of people attending their first antiwar march. Or when an astonishingly wide range of organizations sponsor and endorse an event of this type.
Yes, there was the usual tendency for speakers to veer off-topic. At this point, I've pretty much resigned myself to that as a sort of inevitability.
In the end, such distractions (their content sometimes worthwhile, just injected into the wrong context) aren't what matter. What matters is that 20,000 to 30,000 people owned nineteen blocks of downtown Portland for an afternoon, demanding a halt to the momentum of war.
Coverage wrap-up: KATU, KGW, OPB, and (as ever) various stories on the local IMC site.
Comments (1)
The One True b!X on 19 Jan 2003
And for day-after coverage, there's a decent piece in The Sunday Oregonian, and there was something of a nice wrap-up on KGW earlier this evening.