You didn’t have to be a weatherman to know which way the wind blew at the anti-surge/peace rally at the State Capital’s south plaza today at noon, but you did need to cover your ears when the noon signal was blown through the emergency signal system.

The Oz, Debster and a player to be named later called me about 11 a.m. in a light snow to make sure I was still up for the adventure and I was.  Don’t follow leaders, watch your parking meters … the pump don’t work cause the vandals took the handles.

Back in the 60s, I don’t recall all that many war protests that took place in cold weather.  Mostly, it just seemed in my memory to be late spring when school was about to be out.  Today, everybody was too cold to pull their hands out of their coats and pass a joint.  Everybody must get stoned, but you couldn’t do that today at the Capital.  It was mostly a very sober crowd with not much foolishness going on, but some familiar faces from those byegone days of yesteryear’s grassroots efforts.  Good ole Nate Batchelder, director of Peace House, still doing the same community organizing after all these years.  It must get discouraging here in Oklahoma some years. 

We started the formal part of the gathering at noon to begin at the same time as the 100,000 person march on Washington Mall in D.C. 

Speaking were legislators and former legislators, an Iraqi veteran, the father of a veteran (dead of his own hand) and a woman who is organizing for a Department of Peace.  They were the warmup for the Rev. Dr. Robin Meyer, my pastor.

Robin spoke of the role of ministers and Christians in general faced with this war and then came an unexpected emotional moment.  The names of all 50 of Oklahoma’s war dead were read, one by one, each by a different person.  This was an act of personal commitment and bravery by the readers because Oklahoma law forbids the use of veterans’ names in such protest events.

There’s something emotionally and personally invigorating about civil disobedience.  It’s engaging in a way few other things are.  I don’t know if I can explain it, but even though I wasn’t one of the readers, the effect on me standing out there in the cold holding a sign that said “Peace is a family value” is beyond my poor ability to string vocabulary into sentence. Sadness, first and foremost, but also resolve and a sense of personal integrity.  There is something about standing up for that which you believe despite its unpopularity (or regardless of its popularity) that is heartening.

The times, they are a changin’.

We took a pass on the 30 minute march to the veterans memorial and went to breakfast at Jimmy’s Egg and congratulated ourselves for being old farts that got off our duffs and actually did something.

Uhm…for reportorial purposes, I note that there were about 100 folks there and the state troopers stayed in their cars and back away from the festivities until it was time to lead the march.  Channel 9 showed up and there were some unidentified (by me) still photographers. 

Thank you, Debster, for your commitment to action.  You are an inspiration.

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