March on Washington

One People, One Struggle:
100,000 Americans march to the Capitol Building to demand Congress stop funding Iraq War

Getting off of the plane and stepping into Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, I felt a strange sense of irony; for it would seem that our late, ultra-conservative president would be the last to invite me to D.C in order to partake in a massive anti-war demonstration. Arriving in that historic and impressive city, I was not sure what to expect but my excitement was overwhelming.
I had been to numerous protests before, but never in our nation’s capital and not on this grand a scale. I was expecting numbers in the thousands; what we got was nearly100,000 sign-bearing, impassioned Americans from all across the nation marching together to demand an immediate end to the occupation of Iraq.
At noon on Sept. 15, we all gathered in Lafayette Park, right outside the White House, where we listened to numerous inspirational speakers including Cindy Sheehan (an avid anti-war advocate whose son died serving in Iraq), Ralph Nader (a political activist and three-time presidential candidate for the Green Party), and Ramsey Clark (former US Attorney Generaland recipient of the Gandhi Peace Award).
But perhaps the most inspiring speakers of all were the Iraq Veterans Against The War who, after delivering a rousing speech, led the immense march from the White House to the Capitol Building. It is for this reason that the few hundred “anti-protestors” angered me so much. How dare they call us “unpatriotic,” “cowardly,” and “un-American,” when among us were the very people who fought in this unholy crusade in order to serve their country!
We marched shoulder-to-shoulder down the eight-lane-wide Pennsylvania Avenue shouting chants such as, “The people, united, can never be defeated!” I knew, as I stood among the vast numbers, that I was part of a historic event. I knew that taking a stand for what I believe connected me, and all those with me, to Martin Luther King Jr. And remembering the legacy of his March on Washington in 1963, I felt empowered.
The Iraq veterans calling for an end to the war was simply heart wrenching: marching in formation as if marching off to war but to do just the opposite. They exclaimed, “We don’t support the troops. We are the troops. And we say that the best way you can support us is to BRING US HOME!”
The march concluded with a dramatic “Die In” of over 5,000 people led by Iraq veterans in front of the Capitol. The rest of us surrounded the building and lay on the wet grass in order to help represent all the millions of total casualties of this war. It was one of the largest acts of civil disobedience in recent years. Nearly 200 people were arrested for breaking through the police barriers, declaring “This is our House…the people’s house!”
One hundred thousand of us marching side-by-side, taking over the Capitol was nothing short of uplifting. We were a massive movement whose steps and minds were as one; we were the city’s pulse and our hearts beat for those who have died in Iraq, both soldiers and civilians.