Midnight Oil

[Powderworks] NMOC: peace march in Washington, DC

Jim Macdonald jsmacdonaldjr@yahoo.com
Mon, 28 Oct 2002 20:08:12 -0800 (PST)


Hi there,

The numbers seemed to be between 80 - 100,000 people.  It was shown in its entirety
on C-Span.  There was a pretty good write up of it in the Washington Post, but it
was generally ignored or given short shrift in the mainstream media.  Some even gave
the ridiculous claim that only a few thousand were there, which is utter nonsense. 
Consensus is forming around 100,000 though the organizers at one time tried to claim
200,000, which I didn't trust because where I was 30 feet from the stage was
actually more sparse than it was when they said 150,000.  I also don't trust it
because I've been to several events now in DC, and this felt comparable to other
events about the size I gave.  I don't see how 200,000 people could have fit in the
space we were in.

I wrote recently on this forum about how bad the media was in general, and these
events go to show you how bad they are.  I'm in contact with some activists, and
some are encouraging me to join an alternative media group after reading my essays
before and after the event.  

There were a number of cameras there, but I don't know where they were from.  Often,
the foreign press does a better job covering these events than the American press,
but I have no idea who had all the cameras on the stage.  

I've been through this with the press too many times before to be dejected about it;
I saw the same horrifying thing happen at Bush's Inauguration in 2000.

That's one of the reasons I have insisted that the activist movement turn inward
into itself and try to figure out its own mission.  For now, the mainstream media
simply is not going to listen to a fractured group of people without a clear leader.
 Jesse Jackson said, "Without vision, there is division."  We need that vision, or
we will continue to be ignored.

We cannot judge success right now by who isn't listening to us but whether we are
listening to each other.

I didn't want to post this on this to this group because of the general distaste
about non-Midnight Oil politics, but since it has been raised, I might as well.  If
you'd like to continue the discussion, there is more on the powderworks politics
forum at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/powderpolitics

For all who are interested,  I have captioned pictures of the peace march in
Washington, DC, at http://www.yellowstonemagic.com/octoberpeace and a long narrative
of the event at http://www.yellowstonemagic.com/octoberpeace/octoberpeace.html

Take care,

Jim


--- Glitch <sena.reisenweaver@verizon.net> wrote:
> I'm sorry to clog p'works with this, but Tom Davies mentioned he had been at
> the peace march.
> Jim: thanks for the account of the day you provided on powderpolitics.
> Here's my thing: Tom says there were 100,000 people there - the biggest
> rally since Vietnam.
> I knew this was happening on Saturday, and I had wished I could be there,
> but since I couldn't I turned on my TV to see the news coverage of the
> event.
> Guess what?  IT WASN'T ON THE NEWS.  None of the major news networks said a
> word about it, not even in those damned scrolling headlines!  And when I
> watched the evening news, again, NOT A WORD!!!!!!!  I was starting to think
> it hadn't happened at all.  Then I get Tom's message that it did, and it was
> huge.  Tell me, was the media even there?  Did anyone else hear about it in
> any kind of news forum?  It wasn't in our paper either.
> What about internationally?  Did any of you in other countries hear about
> this?  This is a big deal, 100,000 Americans turned out to protest war in
> Iraq.  Think of how many were not able to make it from all over the country.
> Many of us don't want this war.  That is a message that needs to be heard,
> and yet the media was silent.
> I am so irate about this.
> 
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