General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Marissa Johnson: a generation of activists who believe in disruption [View all]freshwest
(53,661 posts)The crowd in the march I took part in was reported by CBS and the Park Service was between 100,000 and 500,000. Yes, we interrupted the daily lives of all the people there because of the daily body count from the war.
Nixon absolutely freaked out, he could see that we were there to shut the government down. Inconvenience be damned, the war was killing Americans and the people of Indochina daily.
John Kerry told the Congress, in effect, that they would either end the war, or those opposing the war would shut it down or take it over by voting them all out of office. And while we didn't get the presidency back until Carter, we took majorities elsewhere and worked to stop the oppression of black people, gays, women, immigrants, workers and to save the environment.
The next few days in 1971 involved many determined to shut the federal government to stop 'business as usual.' They went tried to block the Pentagon and roved about to do more. It resulted in over 12,000 arrests.
And he things that people said to the powerful were not polite. There was a lot more going on in those days than what did in Seattle. People who act like that was outrageous aren't aware of how desperate things negate the rules of civility in protest.
JMHO. YMMV.