Archives - John McCutcheon at RNC Demonstrations
August 2004
Letters to the Editor: John McCutcheon at RNC Demonstrations
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George,

Parthy, Will and I joined 500,000 (estimate by NYTimes and NYC Police) of our closest friends in advance of the GOP Convention yesterday. It was a peaceful demonstration...other than the obligatory anarchist arrests...and was nearly twice the number of people that organizers or the city expected. It was a solid two miles of marchers beginning at 14th St. & 7th Ave. and circling past Madison Square Garden (and Fox News), ending up at Union Square. The turnout was so large, in fact, that beginning and ending rallies were abandoned simply because there was no place to put everyone.

The day was hot and sunny and, other than having to wait about 1-1/2 hours to begin the march while side streets-full of protesters were merged in, it was an event that was a lot of fun. Of special note were a couple of great ad hoc marching bands, a number of drumming groups and a very moving procession of 1,000 coffins, representing US deaths in Iraq. Here are a couple of shots from along the way....

The Best T-shirt I saw...sported by none other than C'ville's own Alice Reed.

Part of the coffin procession. 1,000 coffins in total were carried through the streets.

All along the route there were signs of support in apartment windows and on rooftops. Confetti rained down on 7th Ave. This was my favorite though...a business closed down. The reason? "Gone Protesting"

Passing Madison Square Garden.

and finally...a little bit of peace tucked away in a corner of our terminus point, Union Square.

- John McCutcheon (electronic mail, August 30, 2004)

Comments? Questions? Write me at george@loper.org.