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Monday, Dec. 09, 2002 / 6:46 p.m. ~My Own Experience~ I think my experience with marching/demonstrating in Washington, D.C. began in 1987. I could be wrong about the year, but if memory serves, that's when we went up to protest a whole host of injustices, not one single issue. It was in April, very cold, and I remember not being able to take pictures with my manual camera because my fingers wouldn't work. I couldn't get them to bend, or do anything I wanted really. Somehow, I shot a roll of slides. A peace sign made of shoes, rather large, on the grass in front of the Washington Monument, giant puppets on parade, miscellaneous people of all ages, sizes, nationalities of origin, but all Americans. All speaking out, making voices heard. Pro-choice, women's rights, human rights, civil rights, a weekend to stand up for what we believed in. I had bought a seat on a chartered bus to go to D.C., by myself. And right now I have no memory of how I found out about it, but it must have been through my boyfriend's (at the time) roommate, who was quite the activist. I drove down to the State Capitol complex, found a place to leave my car, and tried to figure which of several buses was my transportation. There I found the roommate of the boyfriend, gathering with a small group taking a van, and I somehow rode with them. A motley group of men, and myself. One guy had green hair. I have pictures of him. Another brought along a guitar, and we actually sang folk songs in the back of that van on the way to D.C. Dylan's "Blowin' In the Wind", probably some Joan Baez, or Donovan, or god knows what, but we had fun, we were marching on Washington, just like in the '60s, a decade I resented being too young to fully appreciate for its social significance. I got it later, I learned all about it, but I was born in '61, I was living a kid's life in the '60s, not a protestor's. This was my chance. As I said, it was cold, I was underdressed, but I absorbed, I listened, I marched, I watched. I partook. And on the way back I found a bus, hopped on� as I had already paid, after all. I paid for my transportation, for my ride to and from D.C. Everyone who went had to pay. The amount paid included gas, if you rode in someone's van, and/or the cost of chartering the buses. I went to local demonstrations over the years, women's rights, abortion rights, and rallies for political candidates, but didn't go back to D.C. until the US began participating in the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia. I'd met a man online, chatting in ICQ, who was staying up all night during the attacks, in the apartment he shared with his wife and small daughter in Belgrade, staying up to watch as the bombs were dropped closer and closer. He wanted to be prepared to move his family if necessary. He and I chatted to pass the time, as he was worried and needed levity. He sent me photos of his daughter, via email, and we chatted, he gave me links to web sites, local and national. He spoke excellent English, and he taught me the human side of that war. I was inspired. I found a local group heading to D.C. to protest, to march, demonstrate, peacefully, to speak out. I signed on, paid for a seat on a charter bus, as I had no intention of flying, or driving myself. It was convenient, $65 for roundtrip transportation. I could sleep on the way there, march, attend the rally and sleep on the way back, stopping for meals. I became friends with the local organizers, a woman who's been demonstrating and protesting since the late '60s, and her good friend, a fellow '60s activist. They charter the same driver, with the same bus company, every time. The driver is great, very cool, and the bus is efficient, no frills, and safe. Every time they charter, though, they lose money. It costs a lot of money, at least a thousand, but I'm not sure how much exactly, probably a few thousand, and most seats are filled, at a basic fraction of the total cost, paid out of pocket by the organizers, but some seats are not filled, and that money is eaten by the organizers. They pass around a hat, or bucket, trying to make up the difference. No profit intended, just paying for the service. We went back in September of last year, after the WTC and Pentagon attacks. We wanted to speak out against the inevitable retaliation against a country that had not even waged war, Afghanistan. It felt good, as always, to speak out, though it would have been too idealistic and na�ve to think we'd stop any violent actions from occurring. I think that ride was $45, a trip taken in a passenger van, three large vans, or maybe two (?), employed this time. The same organizers, me sitting behind the woman who's been to D.C. hundreds of times, who has so many stories to tell. Meeting new people, keeping up with those I'd seen before. I think this time the vans were totally paid for, and everyone who went paid his/her way. There had been less interest this time, too close to the 'tragedy', I'd guess, for a huge turnout, no chartered bus, but the vans were mostly full. The last time I went was in April of this year, three chartered buses, one just for Muslim men, as they won't take transportation together with women. The demonstrations/rallies turned out to be pro-Palestinian, not anti-war on Iraq, as I'd been led to believe. It was educational, but I didn't know enough about the cause to feel passionately one way or another. I believe injustices are being committed on both sides, but I felt lost. I did meet both Skipper and Sandy though, and this was a good thing. Again, chartered buses, the usual driver, the one who usually goes to the D.C. protests with our group, the local chapter of the International Action Center, and whom our organizers know intimately, as in they invite him to dinners, etc. I think it was $65, again, and again some money wasn't collected, the organizers asked for extra, and I gladly contributed what I could, an extra $10, I think. Every time we do this, it's for convenience, the arranging of mass transit, so we can go together, bond a bit on the way, sleep on the way (which is REALLY important, more so on the way back!), and maybe save some gas, and wear and tear on our own vehicles. It's a hard ride, it's LONG, it's hard to sleep, but it's possible, and I've loved meeting the like-minded souls on board. From the women from Spelman College last September, to the Serb on the way to the Yugoslavia bombing protests. Vladimir, I'll never forget him. I was able to swing the money, every time, but I work for a living, I spend only frugally, I usually have some extra in my bank account, and I would never expect to hop on board without paying, not when I know the organizers personally and how much they spend, out of pocket, each time. It's a great effort on their part to organize, to get the word out, to pay for the charter, to get people there on time, to leave on time, etc. Maybe because I know them personally I have more respect? I would never see them as capitalists, they're not profiting at all from the situation. Why I should be accused of being a 'capitalist' because I see no problem with asking people to pay for their ride to and fro' is beyond me. If some company were out to make a profit, provide transportation and charge three times as much per seat or something, yeah, that would be insane, worse than capitalism, that would be greedy and nasty. Maybe in Iowa City they do that. I don't know, but I didn't deserve to be derided, assigned a moniker, a negative mudslinging epithet, for what? If someone really wants to go to D.C., and can't afford to hop on a charter, from whatever city, find friends who are going, get together a buck or two to contribute to gas, or hitchhike, find a way, if you want it. But why blast those who work for a living and can afford to charter a bus? Is it up to the government to provide free transportation to national protests/demonstrations? Is it up to the community? Who pays? Your taxes? Someone has to pay, you have to realize that. Driving hundreds of miles costs money. Who should pay YOUR way? YOU. I believe in a society in which each individual who is capable is responsible. If you can work and you need money, you work. If you need to buy things, food, shelter, bus tickets, get a job. If you can't find a job in your field, take any job. Our society is fucked, I'll be amongst the first to agree with that. There is no living wage, how many people are below the poverty line??? Unemployment is rampant, agreed, but if you can wait tables, do it. If you can sling hash, do it, if you can work, and you need money, do it. And don't live beyond your means. No society is perfect, but you can't expect to be given a free ride. I am not a capitalist because I believe those who want a ride on a charter bus should pay for that ride. Hell, get a friend to front you the money. Ask if you can trade books for the ride, or haircuts, or veggie burgers. Find a way, if it's what you want, but don't rag on the people who bust their asses at jobs they hate because they saved enough money to pay for their rides. Where is the logic in that????? On one hand, I like that I live in a country where I have the opportunity to create a business, to work for myself if I want, to produce a product and sell it, or a service, and profit from that. But to profit at the expense of people's basic human rights is wrong. To hire people to work for me at slave wages is wrong, or to mistreat my workers, not provide insurance, vacation time, family leave, yes, that would be horrible, but it's possible, I believe, to operate responsibly within a capitalist society, to provide a sense of socialism within that society. A society run by the people, but each must be responsible and contribute his/her share. Especially when a service is being paid for, by one or two individuals, it's only right to expect that anyone partaking contribute his/her portion of the expenses. How is that capitalism? By any stretch of the imagination?? I think there are a lot of young people looking for a fight, but their anger is misdirected. They want anarchy, or socialism as anarchy, but their ideals are skewed, at best. And to attack their activist brethren seems sacrilegious, for lack of a better word. If their ideals are near and dear enough to be revered as religious, or spiritual, human, to lash out at anyone who basically wants the same seems more than wrong. Anger for anger's sake is coming from a different place, it has nothing to do with the issues at hand. I'm an just old hippie, and if you haven't seen that, you've not looked. Don't forget about the bus driver, he's a man (or she's a woman) earning a living, trying to feed his own family. Everyone has to be paid. And, for the record, no one is being 'denied the right' to protest, but it is up to each individual to find his/her own way to D.C. Transportation is not a 'right', human or otherwise. My suggestion to anyone who absolutely has exhausted all resources available to get to the Demonstration in D.C., or the one in San Francisco, is to organize and protest locally. Hell, have a fucking bake sale, or a car wash! Just don't bitch at me and call me a capitalist. Cost of the War in Iraq
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