Well, San Francisco, what can I say?

There we were, standing on the edge of City hall, listening to the rantings of "liberal yahoos"
(a term coined by an acquaintance of the family, Mr. Bill O'Reilly) as Riot police stood bored in a human barricade between two dozen angry Israelites and the thousands who showed up to stand in protest of the war. I mean stand in the most cut and dry way, mind you, as there was little else going on with this crowd, save for a few raucous groups of individuals and performance artists. As the masses filed out hastily to be held up in human foot traffic on the first two blocks of the march, a group of girls known as the Brown Berets of Watsonville came to the stage. They sang with fervor and grace, the lines were simple, and they asked only that the crowd sang along so as to drive the point home, "End the war". The crowd response was nothing less than deafening silence. One drug riddled woman in pink tiger pants and a fuzzy cowboy hat leaned strong on the guard rail and sang her heart out while the other 200 spectators who had stayed behind out of respect stood complacent in their pose, poised to back down at any chance of police interaction.

The rest of the day was stunning. After joining the march, which meandered through downtown before tearing up Dolores street, more of the same group pandemic was apparent. Small talk was shared among aging hippies who carried signs promoting large scale nonprofit slogans, while others carried less direct, more creative signs and did much of the same. I overheard one man refer to the march as "more of a party than a protest" The riot police, now marching along the parade route, carried their batons and helmets lackadaisically at their hips and strolled as though burdened with such boring duty. At one point, a five minute "die in" was staged. This lasted all of twenty five seconds before the short witted crowd began standing and wandering on to Dolores park. The overall climate here: "Lets get done with this thing so I can buy a t-shirt from the socialists and a tray of garlic fries"

All I can say, San Francisco, is well done. Way to stick it to the man by getting in the way of nothing. As we marched, more guns were shipped to Iraq, more soldiers deployed, and more money flowed into the hands of Blackwater. We effectively did absolutely nothing but attest our own sense of self, establishing ourselves as the anti-establishment quadrant of California. To the speaker's credit, their words did not fall upon deaf ears. Plenty of these people listened to your claims, and I'm sure thousands are now reporting to their nearest and dearest about the thousands who were threatened with deportation after being evacuated in southern California. With any luck, they will do some reading before spouting that trash, and find out it is absolutely not true. Thanks for nothing.