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My sister, an American who has lived in London for almost 20 years, sent me this report:
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They were expecting maybe 10,000, a cop told me. Now it looks like we were 100,000. I left my office at lunchtime to join the front of the march , near the University of London. A great studenty atmosphere there, people singing, selling badges, waving banners - and the cops delayed the march for half an hour, as panic swept the metropolitan police further down the route, seeing as ten times as many people had shown up.... more barriers, more cops, oh dear... the marchers cheered and roared. And then we were off. Favourite banners included a gigantic postcard, with a simple message to the Prez:
Dear George Bush
Fuck right off.
Yours sincerely
The UK.
And I saw numerous Howard Dean for President signs!! And many many American ex pats on the street - - I for one was wearing my old tshirt that has 'American Girl' embroidered on it .... I stuffed it away in a bottom drawer a long time ago because I was ashamed and in fact afraid to wear it. Today I took it out and thought, its not the Tshirt that should go, it's George Bush.
Cops on horseback marshalled us through the streets but it was a peaceful, if very noisy crowd - folks sold whistles to add to the noise volume, because here in our democracy, we discover we are being held many hundreds of yards away from the government buildings and the Palace, where presumably George was having a nice cuppa tea with the Queen. The reason being, nobody wants him disturbed by these pesky marchers. How we roared and whistled! He's kept a VERY low profile over here, as you may know, whisking around in his incredibly expensive security cordon (his visit here has cost the British taxpaper FIVE MILLION POUNDS) .... one other favourite poster today said
HEY GEORGE, SADDAM HUSSEIN GETS OUT MORE THAN YOU DO...
Young and old, posh and not so posh, students, secretaries, faces of every colour, tall short fat thin, there was no discrimination, just a vast sea of people expressing their views in no uncertain terms. I stopped by an open mike, and listened for a bit - to one young Islamic speaker who wept into the mike, 'our religion is not about killing and terrorism , we believe in peace, we pray for peace' and then some kid in jeans leapt up for his turn and in very familiar tones said 'Hey, dudes, I am from the West Coast of America. I am American and I am ashamed to be American today. Not in my name, does George Bush and his unelected government bomb Iraq. Not in my name.'
It was a great event . I just wonder what difference it makes. Can our leaders hear any of this , inside the bubble?
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