I do find it a little frustrating that the city that gets shut down is the city where easily three-quarters or more of the population opposes the war.

Sorry to be off topic but have a look at a wonderful and very moving speech by a British army commander preparing his men for war. It moved some of the hard guys to tears and it deserves a wider audience.
http://www.owdo.blogspot.com/
Thank you.

That was moving. Thanks Mr.Dutton.

The "protestors" arresting commerce in my California birthplace shows they are more about insurrection and disruption then peace.

UN security Council. "un-security council" is appropriate after 12 years of failure to help the poeple of Iraq and for it's utter failure and complete debocle concerning it's resolutions. They should be disbanded. Where is the protest aginst them?

Edited by author 03-20-2003 04:28 PM
More pics:
http://www.whileseated.org/blog/archives/000888.html
http://www.whileseated.org/blog/archives/000889.html
http://www.whileseated.org/blog/archives/000890.html
http://www.whileseated.org/blog/archives/000891.html

Good too see pix. Thanks.

It's unfortunate that peace activists have to resort to civil disobedience to make themselves heard, but the corporate media isn't interested in making their viewpoint heard so we wouldn't hear from them at all if they didn't make these kinds of protest.

Edited by author 03-20-2003 06:23 PM
Most of my office is glued to the windows watching the afternoon protest stream down California St. toward Market. At lunch I saw a sheriff's bus full of arrested protesters driving down Market toward the Embarcadero. As I sit at my desk listening to CNN radio, one commentator is saying the first two heroes of the war have emerged: two U.S. pilots who dropped "bunker busters" on Iraq with little or no cover from our troops. Every five minutes they're reminding listeners that we still haven't unleashed "shock and awe", like it's something we should all be eagerly awaiting.

I can't help but feel protests like the one here are a bit futile -- wasted energy and voices which are falling on deaf ears in D.C.

It wasn't just Downtown either. Driving down Oak from the ocean side of S.F., traffic just stopped at Divisadero. I got a bit further in, not quite to Church and Market, and then gave up and came home. So I would expect that the Mission, Castro, and SOMA areas were locked as well.

mike i don't think it's wasted energy. even if nobody in the political establishment cares about the protests, citizens who are opposed to the war are listening. it's nice to know there are people who feel the same way you do. it's inspiring that people are willing express themselves in this way.

I agree I think people need to show how they feel, even if no one listens, we can't be robots about something as important as war!

they may not be doing it by the time anyone gets around to it but there's a shoutcast stream of the sfpd's radios available here.

Edited by author 03-20-2003 07:58 PM
Thinking more about it, I agree with boingboing addict that it's not completely wasted energy. Raising one's voice to let other's know they're not alone in dissent is a good thing. In fact, I am somewhat heartened that the message of protest seems to be reaching the citizien's of other countries, letting them know that U.S. citizens aren't all behind this terrible decision. But, I think that message has been sent by the weekend protests across our country over the past month -- which will most likely continue this weekend.

I'm just frustrated with the overly-dramatic way in which those voices have expressed themselves on the main streets of S.F. today. I don't see how getting one's self arrested for standing on Market street at rush hour does a lick of good. Why not protest in Civic Center or Justin Herman Plaza? It's not like the media would fail to cover a massive protest in S.F. if it didn't snarl our already-bad traffic.

How are hundreds of idling cars making matters better?

This picture from the protest really disturbs me.

Here are a few more, including some of a masked splinter group that dragged newspaper racks onto Market St.:

http://www.nukekiller.net/pics/protest2003/