First off, I just want to say that Peter Utsey’s href=”http://www.dailyemerald.com/vnews/display.v?TARGET=showImage&article_id=3e
5657c007368&image_num=1″>illustration
for Friday was a riot! I don’t know what it
was exactly, but the absurdity of it all had me
laughing out loud.
With that said, I want to talk about the href=”http://www.dailyemerald.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2003/02/17/3e510df0d180d?i
n_archive=1″>peace
rally from last weekend. It was really quite
an experience. Until you’ve seen hundreds of people
marching, cheering and chanting as a cohesive unit,
for a common, non-sports-related cause, you haven’t
lived. It’s even more eerie when it’s happening in your
own hometown, down streets and sidewalks you journey
every day.
My fiance, Bonnie, and I were a little late to the
event. I decided to take advantage of the situation,
and I brought along the Emerald’s sexy new digital
camera of the apocalypse. I thought I’d get a few
pictures for the Web site. I had no idea what I was
getting into. Because of our late arrival, we were
separated from the main group. There were a couple
dozen of us stopped on the corner of 13th Avenue and Pearl Street.
We had sent out a couple people on bikes to see if
they could find out where the march was headed.
Everyone assumed that they were ahead of us, or on a
side street, and we were preparing to jog a couple
blocks to catch up. There was mention of a group on
15th or 16th avenues of about 30 people. It sounded like a
small turn out, perhaps a result of bad weather or
maybe good ‘ol apathy. Disappointed but determined to
get at least a few good shots, I started taking some
photos of the sign-bearers in our little group. I
started across the street for a better venue while
“twerping”* through the dozen-or-so photos I had taken
when I was struck by an awesome sight.
As it turned out, the main marchers were behind us.
They must have left the EMU behind schedule. I looked
up 13th Avenue to a throng of students and community
members and a blast of colors from flags, banners and
signs. They were cheering and shouting, laughing and
singing. Even blocks away, the sound sent chills up
my spine. The crowd was spilling down 13th Avenue like a
wave… a flood of humanity. It honestly brought
tears to my eyes.
That was just the start. As police motorcycles moved
from intersection to intersection, I snapped pictures
as quickly as I could. It was impossible to take it
all in. There were families, students, retired folks,
dogs, wheelchairs, and even a naked woman extending
for several city blocks up and down the street. When
we reached the federal building, there were another
couple thousand already there and more on the way.
Anyhow, if you want to see more, I posted a handful of
photos to the Image Gallery in “Special Editions” here
on the Web site. You can follow href=”http://www.dailyemerald.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2003/02/17/3e34b6cfc1070″>
this
link to see more. If you missed out on
Saturday’s march… you need to be sure not to miss the
next one.
Just my $0.02…
For those who are interested,
according to our photo editor Adam Amato, “twerping”
is the term for the act of scanning through images on
the little screen of a digital camera while they’re
still in memory.