Too little, too late

A heartbreaking day for me. It was a very small turnout, considerably less than a thousand, and even if it had been much larger, I don't honestly know whether this or any demonstration is the way to make change happen in the world. I believe it was well-intentioned and deeply felt by the organizers and the few who showed up, but my observation is that it was just a way for a rag-tag scatter of old peace-niks to feel good together, and for some of them to feel good about themselves. I saw self-importance, I saw exhibitionism, and I saw good people with high ideals attempting to change a big problem with small means. I don't know what we can do about our rage at war, at corporations and their control of government, at the dominance of the military-industrial complex. While a group of old (and a few young) idealists waved flags and signs at each other, thousands more went shopping, thousands more gazed at monuments and took pictures of each other posing in front of pretty statuary. Overhead a fleet of helicopters ferried politicos hither and yon, and on a beautiful autumn day, the corporate world, supported by an elaborate charade that calls itself democracy, went on about its business.

I left the "demonstration," if that is what it was--the peace-festival, the place of selling T-shirts, and drifted among the monuments I had heard about but had never seen. I saw the Vietnam War Memorial, the American war-dead of my generation, and I thought too about all the Vietnamese whose names are not there. I kept moving, walking, looking. Here, inscribed in stone, I saw these phrases: "ACHIEVE AND CHERISH A JUST AND LASTING PEACE AMONG OURSELVES AND WITH ALL NATIONS" (Lincoln Monument), "RIGHT, TEMPORARILY DEFEATED, IS STRONGER THAN EVIL TRIUMPHANT" (Martin Luther King, Jr. Monument), "THE TEST OF OUR PROGRESS IS NOT WHETHER WE ADD MORE TO THE ABUNDANCE OF THOSE WHO HAVE MUCH, IT IS WHETHER WE PROVIDE ENOUGH FOR THOSE WHO HAVE TOO LITTLE" (FDR Monument), and "I HATE WAR" (FDR Monument).

Maybe the revolution is hiding in the Occupy Wall Street movement. I haven't found it yet.  If I can find it, I'll do what I can to support it. Here's someone who studies movements and has some hope for the Occupy Wall Street action.