by Nan Coughlin
As a concerned citizen, the mother of four and the grandmother of four, I have a big stake in the policies of my country. We Americans have a duty to stand up for what we think is right. For this reason on Friday evening (Valentine’s Day) one of my daughters, my son-in-law and two year old grandson and I boarded the train for New York to attend the anti-war rally due to take place on Saturday the 15th of February at noon.
The powers that be in New York granted a permit for the rally to be held on 49th Street and 1st Avenue extending north along the avenue, but not south in front of the United Nations. A permit was not granted for a march for security reasons. Remember we were in Code Orange mode for a possible terrorist attack!
Never mind, we were all pleased to be able to express our views that this war against Iraq was not necessary. On Saturday, joined by other family members and friends we arrived by subway at 53rd Street and walked to 2nd Avenue. Then we headed south to 49th St and backtracked to 3rd Avenue to meet some friends with whom we had a rendez vous planned. When we arrived at 3rd Avenue from 49th St we were met by police and police barricades. We were trying to look for our friends, but were told by the police to move to the 3rd Avenue side of the barricade.
Once there we were engulfed by masses of humanity. Thousands of people trying to get to the rally were moving along the sidewalks - there was no permit to be in the street even though the police were not allowing any cars on any of the streets in the vicinity of the rally. We never found our friends, so headed north to find a cross street where we could get to 1st Avenue and our destination. The crowd was wonderful and peaceful and elated to be with so many like minded citizens. There were mothers and children, senior citizens, young students, working class people, middle aged professionals and union members. This was middle America at its best having a peaceful democratic protest to express their views on how their government should be acting on their behalf. This is what America is all about. Right?
Well, maybe not right. Somewhere around 50th the mounted police formed a line across the avenue. In my naivete I thought to myself "How accomodating of the police. They are blocking the avenue to make it safe". This had turned into a march despite the powers that be. Now we were all in the street and having a wonderful time yelling out slogans, talking to each other, admiring the very clever signs including those thanking the French and Germans and Belgians for holding fast at the United Nations for the inspections to work rather than go to war. Suddenly, with NO provocation, the mounted police started moving against the crowd. I was flabbergasted. People were being pushed and shoved trying to get out of the way of the horses. Stonyfaced the police carried on. I was quite near the horses - within six feet. I started to yell at the police: “This is America. We are Americans. We are peaceful. We are trying to get to the rally. You should be ashamed of yourselves.” My son pulled me back out of harms way. Soon the crowd was chanting “Shame on you”.....One young lady was thrown out of the way of the horses by the police. At each cross street there were barricades with the police saying "there are too many people on 1st Avenue" or“you have to go to 59th to cross” further on “you have to go to 72nd to cross” and then “you have to go to 89th to cross”.Then there were the police in riot gear - you know with the plastic helmets across their faces, batons at the ready, and with automatic pistols and tear gas canisters on their belts. We were in a holding pen. It was incredulous that fully armed riot police were penning in a bunch of middle Americans peacefully protesting.
It was also cold. So after a couple of hours of trying to get to the rally I decided to go back to where I was staying. Lo and behold, we were denied access to the subway stations - "too many people to allow on the platforms" we were told by the police. At this point we knew the police were lying. They kept giving different reasons for not allowing us through the barricades. I knew there were not too many people on 1st Avenue as one of my daughters had gotten through and told us that there was room (cell phones are great for instant communication). The police don't typically shut down subway stations because of lots of people. We have lots of parades in New York City: St Patrick's Day, West Indian Day, Macy's Thanksgiviing Day Parade, the Fourth of July, etc. and they don't shut down then. It had to be another reason: perhaps a political reason. It was quite evident that the police did now want the people to get to the rally. We were being denied our civil rights to attend a permitted rally. I felt like crying. Here we had started the day with such joy and hope and elation at being with all these peaceful, docile, wonderful people and it ended up with barricades, mounted police, riot police, closed subways and no access to the rally.
It was really brought home to me while watching the news on TV later that evening, observing the millions of people around the world who were allowed to freely and peacefully demonstrate their anti war feelings, that something bigger was going on here in my own country. I can see now that we are losing our civil liberties right before our own eyes. This is our FREEDOM folks. Don't forget it.
Despite all of the president's rhetoric on the reasons for going to war against Iraq, nothing that has been said has ever made sense to me. Saddam Hussein had nothing to do with the attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon; he has not been supplying arms or information to Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda; he has not threatened to attack the US or it's allies or any of his neighbors since the Gulf War. He is an evil man who has wreaked untold misery on his own citizens.There many other dictators in the world. There have been many other atrocities in the world (Chechnya,Ruanda, Congo, Liberia, N. Korea). There are many other nations who have weapons of mass destruction (Russia, Israel, US, Pakistan, India, China, N. Korea) Are we to wage war against everyone? Oil? The country from which most of the terorists carried passports was our good friend (?) Saudi Arabia that supplies us with a great deal of our oil. Revenge for trying to kill Daddy? None of the above seems reasonable to me.
It has been two years since George W Bush has been in the White House. During that period of time we have turned back the clock on the many measures in place to clean up the environment; our economy is in a shambles; thousands have lost their jobs; our national debt is soaring to numbers that are incomprehensible; billions of dollars are being paid to countries around the world so they will side with us in the UN or allow us access to bases on their territory; Afghanistan has not been stabilized: Osama is still on the loose; we are heading for war; the Patriot Act is going to be supplemented by even more draconian measures; Congress is just sitting there like bumps on a log - "whatever you want Mr President" (Is Ashcroft like J.Edgar Hoover with a damning dossier on every elected official?).
Is the war on Iraq a smoke screen? Did it help get an all Republican Congress elected in November 2002? Is it hidiing the fact that we are losing our civil liberties bit by big bit? Is this the real reason? To what end? To keep power in the hands of a few? Soon every dissent will be muffled. Remember "los disparados" in Argentina? You speak up against the regime and poof you are gone. Already the Justice Department is able to arrest people (including our own American citizens) and keep them incommunicado for as long as they like. The erosion of our civil liberties is the death knell for America as we know it. Our Founding Fathers over 200 years ago tried to prevent this from happening by having checks and balances in our Constitution. It seems to me that our checks are not keeping the balance.
We must not sit back and allow our country to turn into a police state. We cannot allow ourselves to be apathetic. And do not think it cannot happen here. Why not? What makes one think that we are invincible just because we are the United States. We ALL must protest most vigorously or we shall soon be living in fear in a totalitarian state. This country is worth fighting for.
Pull down the barricades!
