Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Barbara H. from New Hampshire shares more of her CODEPINK experience...

Just flew into Dulles after being home in NH for two weeks. I took a
bus (20 minute drive) to the metro (20 minute subway ride) to Union
Station, walked to the Codepink house, arrived around 10:00 a.m.,
just had time to stow my stuff, change into pink and head off. Took
the bus to Lafayette Park, right in front of the White House where
the rally was to be held. Gradually activists arrived and the crowd
grew to about 200-300 people. The rally went on for about 1-1/2
hours. Many moving speakers and singers, including Lynn Woolsey,
co-sponsor of HR 508. Then we marched from the White House to
Congress. The march was great. Lots of chanting and singing led by
Reverend Yearwood. Lots of honking of horns in support from cars
going by. When we got to the Department of Justice, we all stopped.
Cindy Sheehan grabbed the megaphone and rallied us with a list of
offenses against Gonzoles. After each charge, we responded with
shouts of "Shame on you!" "Resign!" When we arrived on Capitol Hill,
we took over an intersection between the Hart Senate Building and the
Longworth Building on one side of Independence and the Capitol on the
other. Traffic was stopped in all directions. There were at least
50 Capitol Police. Many people chose to form a circle around the
flagpole lowered at half mast, that had been carted along with our
march, and stay until they were arrested. Thirty-three people were
arrested. It took a long time to get them rounded up. Many people
went limp when they were arrested to prolong the process. Shouts of
"We love you!" and "Thank you." went out to the resisters. After
everyone was gone, we regrouped on the lawn and processed the event.
Someone arrived with cases of bottled water which was much
appreciated since everyone had given their water up to the resisters
when the police started their arrests. We're back at the Codepink
House now. We have found out that the computers are down at the
police station, so people who were arrested and hopefully going to be
processed and released quickly will be there for a while.

Roll Call, a Capitol Hill paper, and the Washington Post have both
been here tonight interviewing people and finding out about the
Codepink House. We are having a meeting in the peace room discussing
strategy for actions the rest of the week. It is very exciting.
Lots of creativity--lots of events that need our attention. It's a
good thing that there are lots of us here this week.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I just returned from the March- back in Omaha, NE. I am glad I could be in DC to protest this hideous war, proud to stand with Cindy and all the other devoted protestors. Thanks for the recap, I will continue to fight for what is right. Kathleen