2001-09-17 - 00:07
after the night there's a brand new day

Well, a satisfying description of today's vigil/peace march and exploration of the issues involved would probably take me a couple hours to write (I'm estimating from the amount of time it took over the phone with my dad, which was about an hour), so maybe some other time. I'll try to make some notes about it so I'll have all the salient facts if I want to bring it up later.

Suffice it to say that nobody got arrested and nobody got in any serious altercations with counter-protesters. I was working the safety/security detail, which ended up mostly consisting of directing traffic and watching the perimeter. The first estimate I heard of our numbers was 1200, but the unofficial count at the end of the march was upwards of 2500--keep in mind that as we walked, we grew. Considering that, and considering that "security" was about a 25-person team, it went extremely well. I felt like we did good work, even if I thought some of the things the organizers did were a little sketchy.

We had to march around Pioneer Square, not into the Square proper, because we didn't have the permit. Which was fine, because we would never have gotten a crowd that size to behave themselves safely in Pioneer Square. After our thing was over, there was a pro-war rally that was actually *in* Pioneer Square, and they fit quite comfortably, because they were a dinky little rally. I'm not good at estimating crowds, but there were, like, 500 people tops. Hah.

So yeah. I feel good. My legs ache from all that walking. But I've had a bad few days, and this was a pretty good one, and now that I feel like I've done something, I'm able to concentrate on schoolwork, which is good. It's a beautiful night here, there are a few clouds out and the air is crisp and clear. You can't see many stars from campus, but the city lights reflecting on the clouds are so bright that it looks like it's almost dawn, even though it's still midnight.

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