The 9/11 Protest

I wrote about my 9/11 experience a month ago. Now that it's 10/11, I thought it would be a good time to reflect on something that took place shortly afterward.

In the aftermath of 9/11, we were facing the possibility that the United States would be going to war. A lot of my friends and I did not like the looks of that prospect. A march was organized to take place in Downtown San Diego on Saturday, 09/22/01. (I had no part of the organization. I was simply told it was taking place and was invited to come.)

I arrived at the meeting location outside Horton Plaza. There were about 200 people gathered. I caught up with a few people I knew. Fairly soon, we were marching on the sidewalks. Many people carried signs that said, "No War!"

While we were marching, we got so many bewildered and frustrated looks from those we walked past. It was like they were trying to say, "How dare you!" I actually was not expecting this strong a reaction. We didn't stir up this much emotion when we took to the streets to support Ralph Nader. I remember this one guy coming up to us and SCREAMING at us all red-faced, almost like someone he knew personally died in the attacks.

I didn't personally engage with anyone who didn't agree with what we were doing. But I was close by when the red-faced man was having an animated discussion with one of my friends. He continued SCREAMING, even though she was two feet away from him and wouldn't let her get a word in edgewise. It was like he absolutely wanted everyone loosely connected with the attacks to die and die horribly.

I wondered how many who saw us suddenly became aware for the first time that there were people who would be against going to war. Did anybody even consider the possibility that there were a large number of people who did not support going to war? At the very least, we didn't support just jumping into war right away. We wanted the government to thoroughly investigate the terror attacks, determine who was responsible and take appropriate measures. I honestly couldn't see why anyone would find that unreasonable.

There were similar marches held across the country. As much attention as they received, they had no significant impact. We went to war.

Eventually, the public at large got very frustrated with the outcome. I wondered if anyone who shook their heads at us that day, including the red-faced man, looks back and thinks, "They were right. We should have listened."