Another Historic Day in Washington, D.C.

By Duane Palmiter Sr

Posted: Jan. 31, 2007

As we were boarding the bus early (2:30 a.m.) Saturday morning taking us to the “peace march against the war in Iraq”, I heard a woman saying, “How many times do we have to do this”? Her words sunk in our minds and hearts as to why we were there!

We were one of two busloads organized by students at Binghamton University and left when the temperature was in the single numbers.

My small group of four persons arrived sometime after the speeches had started on the Mall. By the time we got there, thousands had arrived before us and the thousands of posters blocked our view of the speakers, but we could hear them well.

Our “group of 4” got separated twice! Before the speaking finished (well after the scheduled finish of 1 p.m.), one of our four got tired of standing for two hours, so we broke away from the crowd (which was difficult to do) and sat down on the rim of the Capitol pool. After we joined the march, one of our group remembered she had left her knapsack at the pool and left to retrieve it. Almost immediately, the marchers had spread from street-wide to approximately 60 yards wide and knowing she could never find us, we started walking toward the pool totally against the direction of the thousands of marchers. We really didn’t know if we could get through! I never did that before and I never want to again! After we went to the pool, we couldn’t find her and panic-attack set in – what if we couldn’t find each other? She had no phone to contact us! But somehow, a miracle happened and we found each other and afterwards, kept in really close contact during the march by holding hands.

At another time after the march, I bent down to pick up some (professionally-made) posters to take back to my Tioga Peace & Justice group in Owego. When I looked up, my 3 friends had disappeared. Again, panic set in! Luckily, I had one of my friend’s cell phone number on my cell phone, so we were able to make contact.
I never saw so many signs and posters in my life! They were either professionally made or hand-made. The hand-made ones were the funniest or politically clever. Some examples were “What would
Martin Do?; “Ban Republican Marriages”; “Killing one person is called murder, but killing thousands is called foreign policy”; “How many lives per gallon?”; “Save a tree, remove a Bush”; and “Stop the blood for oil program”!

It was cold when we first arrived in Washington, but gradually the temperature rose to what felt like 60 degrees and sunny, a perfect weather day. Runners and joggers were in t-shirts and shorts. Most of us removed our winter jackets and were in t-shirts. On the subway back to the bus, I realized I was the only one wearing a winter hat. When we arrived back in Binghamton at midnight, it was snowing!

A spokesman for United Peace & Justice, the sponsor, said the peace rally attracted 500,000 persons. Hopefully, we will make a difference, but if we don’t try, it wouldn’t make any difference!

The local news got grimmer when I read about the death of a soldier in Iraq from Candor in Sunday’s paper, my previous hometown!

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