"The World Can’t Wait...and Neither Can You!" Anti-Bush Rally Takes NYC by Storm

by Marcel Votlucka
Staff Writer

November 2, 2005: Had you emerged from the Union Square subway station around noon on that day, you'd have been greeted by a blast of chilly air, the cacophony of car horns, bursts of music and chanting, and the truth. "Thousands of people have been killed in Iraq." "Bush is trying to put neo-con fascists on the Supreme Court." "The White House lied to us about the war and terrorism."

I also received the dubious pleasure of being greeted by a police van blocking my path as I tried to cross the street. And then there was the gaggle of pro-Bush demonstrators I passed on my way into Union Square. They hoisted the Star Spangled Banner arrogantly, as if America was their God-given country alone. One of their signs clearly articulated their opinion of us: "HIPPIES GO HOME!"

In the interest of fairness, there was one hippie-ish dude (complete with long shaggy hair) who gave off the competing odors of reefer and incense as he paraded around with a placid grin on his face handing out flyers. But aside from him, what met my eyes was a mostly young, average, middle class, normal crowd. An astonishing number of high school kids populated Union Square that afternoon, along with the usual contingent of college kids, working stiffs, and veteran activists. The kids impressed me with their sheer presence, and the speakers never failed to praise them. They were so full of energy, so full of hope and idealism, so highly informed about the world around them, so noble in performing their civic duty of dissent…

Nah, we were all just a bunch of pissed off New Yorkers who wanted that bumbling usurper out of the White House and had skipped school or work to raise our collective voices against him. That, and to hoist cool signs.

"War on Terror? War IS Terror!"

"The Shrub needs a trimmin'!"

"George Orwell was off by 21 years!"

Amid an image of a sinking ship: "What's the plan?"

Indeed, how fitting that there were so many young people at this gathering--her voice cracking with grief, one of the speakers informed us that the average age of a soldier killed in Iraq is 21 years. I'm sure many of you reading this haven't even reached that age yet. Just imagine, for a moment, having your young life snuffed out like a candle in the wind…all so Halliburton can make a few bucks and some pig in a suit can win political points from a war justified on a grand conspiracy theory.

How many innocent Iraqi children have been slaughtered? I can't even comprehend that bloody number, it hurts too much. And yet, the Bushites continued to hoist their signs exhorting us to "SUPPORT OUR TROOPS!" Yet another meaningless marketing slogan.

"From Death Row, this is Mumia Abu Jamal."

A rich erudite baritone filled the air, bringing to our ears his words of wisdom. "This is not so much a protest against someone as it is a protest in support of yourself." By this Mumia meant the obvious: dissent is vital to a free society, and NYC's youth made themselves heard and validated themselves in the face of neocon fascists killing thousands of youth not unlike them…and in their name no less. Despite his voice being an audio recording, the youth in the audience appreciated his words as if he were physically present in the square.

Next, an imam took the stage and revved up the crowd with enlightening words of solidarity and struggle. He spoke of the prophet Mohammed's three ways to address evil. "He said, if you can't change things by your own hand, speak out against it, and if you can't speak out for whatever reason, hate it in your heart! But all of us here today are set on one thing; we hate this state of things, we're gonna speak out…and we’re gonna change it!" The crowd ate it up, feeding off the raw conviction in his voice.

More truth assailed out ears as Democracy Now! producer Jeremy Scahill took the stage. Instinctively, I wandered closer to the stage--Scahill is, after all, one of the few remaining real journalists in this country. He talked at length about Blackwater Securities Inc., a private security firm (read: mercenaries) working at the behest of the U.S. Government. Theirs is a story of cronyism and murder for profit. As if it weren't bad enough that the U.S. military is being squandered in order to provide Bush and his cronies political and economic profit, firms like Blackwater commit further atrocities in that country, all to make a few bucks.

The icing on the smutty cake, according to Scahill, is that Blackwater traveled to flood-ravaged New Orleans to do its dirty work in advance of the feds. In his words, they are "turning the Mississippi into the Tigris," engaging in the same abuses of power as the police and feds in New Orleans, Biloxi, and so on. They make their living off this without even the flimsy veneer of being a "public servant." At least they're up front about it.

Soon, the speakers, including a livid military mom, departed the stage, and a pack of high school kids replaced them. They'd all walked out of school that day to come to the rally, in the face of suspensions and other disciplinary actions from their schools. The same could be said for most of the youth in the crowd too. A round of applause for their courage melted into a rhythmic chant:

"Join us, joins us the world can't wait! Drive…out…the Bush regime!"

An imperative drumbeat and a funky (and catchy) electric guitar riff started to accompany the chant, as the march to Times Square began. I wandered through the sea of people marching down 14th Street toward Eighth Avenue, immersing myself in the scene. The air was thick with the acrid stench of diesel exhaust and burning rubber, courtesy of our escort of several police vans and motorcycles. I couldn't help wondering if, under different circumstances, the police might've joined our march. Imagining ordinary folks and the cops rebelling against their piggish masters gave me hope that maybe 1984 will indeed remain fictional and not prophetic.

And yet…I was not at all surprised by the embarrassing lack of media coverage of the rally and march. Aside from Jeremy Scahill and a lone reporter interviewing some high school students, the media failed to represent itself. Even in this overwhelmingly Democratic city--and days before a mayoral election to boot--an anti-Republican protest such as this merited little attention. Despite polls showing that 60 percent of Americans finally realize Bush is an incompetent clown, an anti-Bush protest provoked hardly a whisper. Although two-thirds of the country has come to oppose Bush’s insane campaign of mass murder in Iraq, an antiwar protest in the middle of liberal Manhattan garnered hardly a glance. Ludicrous. Pitiful. Shameful. Even when a majority of the populace agrees with the positions taken by the protesters, the damn protest itself was still too controversial and real for the country to handle.

Hey, is that an elephant in the living room?!

So this begs the question: are these protests and marches and demonstrations worth it anymore? After all, most people don't go to protests, and few seem to notice them in the mainstream media. The public has grown to despise Bush, his cabal, and his imperialistic wars just by seeing the death toll rise daily, by seeing the ruling cabal implode due to scandals, and by seeing the Iraqi rebels kick our military's asses all over the country. Protests that go unseen on TV can't sway any minds, so why do it?

Of all the words of validation given by the speakers at the demonstration, one stands out. A student took the stage and mentioned the recently deceased Rosa Parks' brave act of defiance on a bus on that cold day just two generations ago. "We want all of you to be like Rosa Parks today!" she declared.

Indeed, that was the spirit motivating the World Can't Wait demonstration; to spark a flame of defiance and rebellion similar to Parks'. It was in this spirit that we protestors shouted our defiant chant, "Join us, join us, the world can't wait! Drive…out…the Bush regime!"

What are you waiting for?