It was great to see the turnout for the antiwar rallies across the
country this past weekend, and the strong media coverage of those
rallies that followed. On Saturday, Washington saw the largest protest
in the capitol since the Vietnam era, with additional protests taking
place in San Francisco, Portland, Tampa and around the world. In
addition to these large-scale protests, the lack of a consensus for a
war was underscored by such diverse segments of our society as labor
unions, Republican business leaders (who recently took out a full page
ad in the Wall Street Journal opposing the war) and the nuns in Los
Angeles who staged their own, smaller protest on Saturday. The Bush
Administration would like us to think that there is unanimous support
for a war against Iraq, but the rallies this weekend showed us that
there is a strong antiwar sentiment growing in this country.
The hundreds of thousands of Americans that protested on Saturday were
clearly just a small representation of the millions who weren’t able to
protest but who similarly don’t support war in Iraq right now. A new
Newsweek poll found that an overwhelming majority of Americans (60 to
35%!) are actually opposed to the war … hopefully we will no longer be
a “silent majority.”

Time and again we have learned that the voices of the people can change
the course of history. The people are speaking out, and it finally
looks like they are starting to be heard.