Capital Region residents make long trip to show resistance to Iraq plan

By ALAN WECHSLER, Staff writer
First published: Sunday, January 19, 2003

11:45 p.m. Friday: Where are the buses?

A crowd of would-be protesters stands in the chilly Albany night, dancing like the audience at a Grateful Dead concert, sans music, all in an effort to keep warm.

For most people, this time of night is the end of a long day. For this group, four busloads worth of anti-war protesters, it is just a beginning. In a few minutes, four charter buses will be coming to take them to Washington, D.C. Seven hours one way, just to take part in what some organizers are calling the biggest peace protest in the United States since Vietnam. Then seven hours back, arriving almost exactly 24 hours after they departed.

Assuming the buses show up.

12:20 a.m. Saturday: The buses come as promised. With a minimum of confusion the crowds board and the chartered Yankee Trails vehicles lumber south. Each passenger paid $40 for the round trip.

For Dan Pitt, 44, an unemployed mechanic from Middleburgh, this is his fourth trip to D.C. since President George W. Bush was elected -- or appointed, as Pitt likes to put it.

"We all knew it was going to be like this," says Pitt, referring to the impending war against Iraq. 'And it's come true."

On Bus 2, the 40-odd passengers are a mixed lot of Capital Region residents -- college students, ministers, parents with children, veterans of peace protests going back to the 1960s and people who never expected to march against their government.

Nancy Mattice, 47, a mother of three from North Greenbush, hasn't been involved in social issues since high school. But something about this current administration grabbed her and wouldn't let go.

"I was feeling sort of powerless," she said. 'I thought this would be really inspiring."

As Bush continues to send troops and arms to the Middle East in preparation for a possible war against Iraq, he maintains that Saddam Hussein is a threat to the United States and is in possession of weapons of mass destruction.

But many Americans believe the proposed war is about other things -- gaining control of the world's second-largest oil reserves, and finishing a job his father began a little more than a decade ago. They think a conflict will plunge the nation into debt and further destabilize an already shaky Middle East.

The talk of politics comes with dawn. As the bus drives through the night, most passengers are too tired to talk and drift off into cramped slumber.

8:30 a.m.: The bus drops everyone off not far from the Capitol. It's cold, mid-20s in the sun, but far warmer than Albany. The protesting started early -- someone had written "No War -- Peace" backwards in condensation on the bus window.

Already thousands have gathered, and it's easy to see that the crowd at the National Mall comes from all over the country. The Albany contingent, about 250, according Yunus Fiske, a UAlbany student who helped organize the bus trip, are only a small part of a crowd that includes people from all over the country.

Elizabeth Soucy spent 24 hours on a charter bus from Minnesota. The group sang songs (church music and a little 1950s rock 'n' roll) to pass the time. The best part, she said, were the rest stops, which were invariably filled with protesters making their way east. Others drove in from Wyoming or flew in from Los Angeles to be here.

Nearby, a man who declined to be named gave out free masks of Bush. It seems police had announced they would be videotaping the protests. For security reasons, they said.

"It's McCarthyism with high technology," the man says. "We have to protect ourselves."

11 a.m.:As the rally begins, the Mall fills with people. While police said 30,000 marched through the streets, protesters organizers said 200,000 showed up at the rally.

However big the numbers were, they had plenty to listen to. The organizers, International ANSWERS, which stands for Act Now to Stop War and End Racism, had lined up more than 40 speakers for the tag-team, two-hour speech marathon. There were relative unknowns like Peace TV, Queers for Peace, Justice NY and Not In Our Name. And there were the Big Names: rock band Chumbawamba, who performed a short acoustic set. Ron Kovic, paralyzed Vietnam vet and author of the book "Born on the Fourth of July." Former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark. The Rev. Al Sharpton and the Rev. Jesse Jackson. And actress Jessica Lange, who drew the biggest interest from the crowd -- audience members shouted to those in front to lower their signs so they could see.

Many speakers recalled the spirit of Martin Luther King Jr., who gave his "I have a Dream" speech to a crowd of 200,000 in 1963 not far from the current protest.

"Mr. Bush hung Dr. King's picture in the White House last year," Sharpton says. "But he needs to hang up Dr. King's words ... If Dr. King was here to celebrate his birthday, Mr. Bush, he would not be inside preparing for military buildup. He would be outside saying 'Give peace a chance.' "

After two hours, the crowd stretches to all corners of the Mall. But the rally is far from over. From here, the entire crowd will march three miles to the Washington Navy Yard.

2:30 p.m.: They fill the streets with all manner of whimsy. One man performs ad hoc with a gas hose nozzle. Another, wearing a suit and a Bush mask, caresses and fondles an inflatable globe with rubber talon hands. A group of four from Washington, D.C., carry a giant cardboard dinosaur. On its belly is written "Bush" and "Cheney," references to a comment Nelson Mandela recently made about America's leaders.

Many carry signs. Michael Stoffel, a Schuylerville resident, carried an intricately drawn board that said "Wage Peace -- Break the Cycle of Violence." Other placards say "No Blood for Oil" or "Stop the War."

The protesters fill the street, almost entirely peacefully -- even when they ran into a small group of counterprotesters standing in front of Marine barracks.

At the end of the march, protesters exhaustedly head back to the buses. Most have been on their feet for eight hours or more.

6 p.m.: The Albany group climbs back on their buses for the long trip home, back to frigid upstate New York.

But perhaps it would not seem as cold as 24 hours before.

"The world is cold, but our hearts are warm," Jesse Jackson told the crowd earlier. "This is America at its best."