Elayne Riggs' Journal (for Leah)

Sunday, April 25, 2004

The March

Just taking a break from C-SPAN's coverage of the March for Women's Lives. Based on the speakers' estimations of a million marchers, the Times seems to be downplaying the numbers a bit but nonetheless hedging their bets:
Organizers obtained a permit for 750,000 people and say they exceeded that goal. The 1992 march drew 500,000, according to the National Park Police, which no longer gives official crowd counts. CNN, citing local police, estimated that at least 250,000 people participated today.
Lots of very inspirational words from women and men alike - I thought Julian Bond particularly eloquent, with his tying-in of the 40th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act and the 50th of Brown vs. Board of Ed, mentioning how the NAACP is also fighting for the right of "two humans to marry" (nice official confirmation that the NAACP is in favor of gay marriage!). I also liked the woman who did the cell-phone-call-to-Bush schtick, although I thought her delivery was a bit off. And Jerry Nadler talked about how pro-choicers don't mind religious folks having their personal beliefs, but that the problem arose when they used the political system to force those beliefs on others - which I thought dovetailed interestingly with the religious discussions currently taking place in the left blogosphere. Back to see if C-SPAN's coverage break is over...

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