less vigil, more vigilante
17 Mar 2003
Amanda and I decided to go to the candlelight vigil for peace yesterday. When I first heard about it, the stalwart machismo self-conscious side of me reacted predictably: “Candles? Singing? gay.” But, it occured to me that as I realize more and more we live in a country full of people that just don’t care about anything, I really should go. I should do something.
So, we went. It was nice, but I felt unsatisfied by it. There were not as many people as I expected, which was disheartening (other more seasoned protesters seemed impressed by the turnout, so I guess that’s relative). Furthermore, there was little/no media coverage. There was some guy with a really big camera, but he might have just been some guy with a really big camera.
It was mostly a gathering of the peacenik variety. (Well, duh, Chris, it’s a candlelight vigil). This is fine and has its place, but I am more interested at this time in protesting the proposed war at hand. I am more interested in voicing my opinion that this isn’t a just war. I haven’t convinced myself that there’s no such thing as a just war, but this doesn’t come close.
They had some decent speakers give brief oratories, but they laid on the Christian prayer nuances a little too thickly for my taste, at something that’s supposed to be, in their words, an “international event”. They started off well, with the diplomatic reference to “God, or Buddha, or etc etc or whatever you call him”, but quickly degenerated into “our father, hallowed be thy name” type stuff that just makes me sweat.
I guess all in all I just felt like gathering in a park and holding candles is nice and all, but what good does it do if no one notices, because no one cares. I felt more depressed about it than anything. I think I would have enjoyed a more vocal demonstration or protest with some good speeches, instead. Hence my provocative and mostly facetious title.
But, all in all, it was a nice event. Looks like across the world, it yielded some beautiful photographs, at least (like the one from Denver shown above).
While avoiding the bigger semantic debate in the interests of peace, I nonetheless feel compelled to point out that “machismo” is a noun.
I think the main problem with these protests is not that no one notices or cares, just that the right people don’t. It does provide the psychological good of letting those of us who oppose the war, and more generally the insane policies and strategies of our government that we are no alone after all.