Subject: Re: [lpny_manhattan] opportunity lost Date: Sun, 23 Mar 2003 14:57:34 -0500 To: From: Bob Armstrong On Sun, 23 Mar 2003 13:20:19 -0800, James Lesczynski wrote: >=A0>From Pete Hamill's column in today's Daily News, entitled > > "Foot soldiers in new peace movement", about yesterday's= massive anti-war march: > >=A0"Four hours after leaving Herald Square, the marchers were= still coming, > filling 30 city blocks in what might have been the largest= anti-government > march in the city's history." >=A0http://www.nydailynews.com/news/col/story/69429p-64540c.html > >=A0The largest anti-government march in the city's history, and= the > Manhattan Libertarian Party was nowhere to be found. It was an astounding number of people . I'm sorry that I have= not been able to coordinate more with the group , but I am very= busy working towards earning a living . I followed Buck's advice and intersected the march , already= massively forming , at 35th St . I had a crude shirt-card sign with STATE =3D =3D =3D FORCE on one side and LIBERTARIAN for PEACE on the other . I would rotate it every few seconds so people= could read both sides . Many more people responded to the message= than I really expected . Without question , the scene was very ripe= for the Libertarian message that the State is the most dangerous= force in our lives . ( My one change in the sign would be to elide= the 'for PEACE' from the flip side because that was obvious from context . ) I also directly challenged some of the overt socialists as to= how they could continue in their belief in the light of current criminality they see . I asked one true believer I engaged= whether he would consider Bush a Nazi . Not to be caught in that trap ,= he replied he considered Bush more a "Bonaparte"ist . I questioned= the distinction . I ran into Jay Greco as I was heading home around 1530 and the crowd was still coming . Both of us were commenting on what an extraordinary number and cross-section of people it was . He commented that it could be estimated at perhaps 20 people per second times the 4 hours . This gives 288,000 which is probably not far off . 15 per second would give 216000 . This was the least policed major event I have seen in years , including Halloween parades . Apparently the police knew that= if they tried to corral it , they could have mass riots on their hands . Frankly , I cannot understand Libertarian ambivalence about= Bush's criminal action . This is a god damned Hatfield and McCoy feud taken to a global level where all sense of honesty , democracy= or security have been discarded . Can anyone possibly feel we are more secure now than we were= last month ? We sure have a larger and more oppressive invasive= State . Best of the NYC brilliant signs I saw : PATRIOTISM is not MILITARISM -- =A0Bob Armstrong -- http://CoSy.com -- 212-285-1864 Ultimate Computing Environment : =A0http://cosy.com/K/CoSy.htm A WTC vision : http://cosy.com/CoSy/ConicAllConnect/ =A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A02003/03/23 1:51:08 PM