Protest bustles with activity

By Oliver Evangelista

Tens of thousands of protesters walked among the nearby streets of San Francisco City Hall on Saturday, to speak their minds and listen to the speeches against George W. Bush and "his war on Iraq."

While some walked around checking out the drummers and the DJ spinning house music on the streets, the bulk of the crowd huddled together in front of the main stage across from City Hall. Some climbed the bare trees in the plaza in an effort to see over the thousands of heads facing the speakers. They sat on the bare branches like birds waiting for the flock to gather and head south for the winter. Some sat on the grass and others leaned on one another like arm rests while most waited for the words to travel from the speaker's mouth, into the microphone, through the amplifier, out of the subwoofers and into their ears.

The words traveled their long journey quickly, and so did the responses from the crowd. If a speaker yelled "peace!" the crowd responded with an uproar. If someone spoke of war, Bush or SUVs, the people were quick to give out their boos. All day long, this endless conversation between the speakers and the crowd continued. Anger and hope filled the air as one by one, war veterans, activists, teachers, politicians and celebrities stood on stage to demand the U.S. government not go to war.

One of the Vietnam Veterans, Tony Gonzalez, a native Californian and American Indian, spoke of his qualms about the U.S. government. He commented on the search for more oil, in Alaska, by the Bush Administration. He stated that his people are tired of dying for this country and they should cry out to the US Government and shout, "The rent is due here!" He spoke against the effects of war and how much pain it brought him and many others. "You can never really come home as the person you were before." Then Gonzalez voiced what seemed to be the consensus for most of the people there, "Look out for Hummers and other SUV's and ask them how many miles they're getting for a gallon."

Most of the protesters expressed concern that the sole purpose of the Bush Administration's desire to go to war is oil. Charlie Kenton of Palo Alto, who lived through the Vietnam War era, carried his flag high in support of his country, but spoke against the man who leads it. He said that "US policy is incorrect ... the war is not to protect the people of the United States, it's to protect corporate interests and obtain cheap oil. If he [Bush] loses the support of England, and Turkey doesn't allow us to invade from the north, then he could have some problems with this. Except I'm not sure how he could just say, 'well I was wrong, they don't have these weapons.'"

The majority of the signs carried by protesters attested to Kenton's statements saying, "No War for Oil," and others did not ask Bush to change his mind but called for impeachment or worse.

An activist on stage claimed that the Bush Administration "wants you to believe that Iraq has a leader and North Korea has a leader that possess weapons of mass destruction and that we have to wage war because of that. Well I got a message for you Mr. Bush. We feel the same way about you!" After those words, the crowd lit up in an uproar as they did countless times throughout the afternoon, further acknowledging their disagreement with Bush and his justification for war.

The largest gathering of protesters, since the Vietnam War, ended without incident or bodily harm. The only things affected were the minds and hearts of those reached by the mass gathering of people who only wish for one end - peace.