[Air-l] People's voices online and off (fwd)

[Jay Hauben]

Hi,

Ronda and I were among the over 250,000 New Yorkers who marched on
Saturday against the bombing and invasion of Iraq. The march resembled
the Internet. There were 1000's of home made signs voicing a large
spectrum of opinion and understanding of the tragedy of this war. I
also saw two signs in support of this war. There was not much media
coverage but the people saw each other and expressed a kinship with
those opposed to the war everywhere. A short article on this march
appears on Telepolis with an interesting set of comments in German.
Here is the url:

http://www.heise.de/tp/english/inhalt/co/14450/1.html

The article is titled:

Giant Protest March in New York City Condemns the U.S. government Attack
on Iraq

and begins:

"Our grief is not a cry for war", one sign proclaimed. "New York City
is not for war", another protester explained. These were but two of
the sea of homemade signs and people that filled the streets of New
York City on Saturday, March 22, 2003. Protesters stretched at least
two miles across Broadway, marching from 42nd Street to Washington
Square Park."

A longer version of the article if anyone is interested is at:

http://www.columbia.edu/~rh120/other/march22protest.txt

The Internet and connections with people around the world are helping
many people in the USA to know we are not alone in our fight against
the reactionary policies and practices of the Bush regime.

It would make a fascinating study to gather the 1000's of slogans and
see what the patterns and understandings behind them are.

It will come as no surprise to those on this list how important the
Internet has been to the organization and coordination of such marches
and the informing of the marchers.

My heart goes out to the Iraqi people and the military personnel and
their families whose lives are being shattered by this war. The turn
out in NYC lifted my spirit because it gave me an idea of the number
of people who will not rest until this madness is stopped. It will
come as no surprise to those on this list how important the Internet
has been to

Take care.

Jay