The New Orleans vigil seemed to have 200+ attendees!

[pacalo]

I got there early -- I'd say there were about 15-20 people there when I arrived. Among them was a young, very handsome Marine (not in uniform, of course) who spoke up when I talked about how my two sons had gotten many calls from recruiters when they were still in high school, that I had told one recruiter I didn't want my son enlisting during a Republican presidency. "Why?" the recruiter asked. "Because Republicans love war," I told him. That was before 9-11.

The Marine seemed to identify with that & said that he had enlisted before * got into office. He had wanted to serve his country, to help people, but this war was wrong. He spoke later at the vigil, when attendance was at full capacity, & said he was there on behalf of his mother, who was in San Antonio holding her own vigil.

I don't know if this is true, but someone told me that one of the guys with a camera was a White House photographer. I heard this man ask two men standing in front of me, one holding a sign, for their names, which he wrote down on his notepad; then he asked him if they were brothers & they said yes.

Although I saw several people filming footage of the crowd, I didn't see any local tv news coverage.

Before it got dark, when the poster identifying the "Support Cindy" vigil could still be seen, there were a lot of cars honking in a friendly way. I wonder how many of those people decided to find a parking space to join us or had gone home first & felt moved to come back to join in.

Later on, as people were mingling about, I saw a young woman with a baby carriage with a "Support the Troops" sign on the side walk by on the sidewalk. I noticed the sour, haughty expression on her face as she passed, & it struck me how divided this country is & how much propaganda had to do with it. If this sign was indicative of what she thought about the purpose of our vigil, she has been misinformed.

I'm so glad I went. I appreciate so much that Cindy Sheehan is taking such a courageous stand for mothers across this country, trying to prevent others from experiencing the heartache of losing a son or daughter needlessly in a war that was based on lies, deceit, & greed.

[funkybutt]

1. You are correct. Attendance was between 250 and 300

Around 225 participants RSVP'd

I think the event turned out great. I had an exchange with a passerby in a truck who asked, "what's this about? is somebody in jail?" Not sure what he meant, I attempted to ignore him assuming he wouldnt know who Cindy was. After a couple of people attempted to explain about Cindy to him, another said, "This is an anti-war vigil"...at that point he said, "Y'all need to about-face on that...ABOUT FACE on THAT!!"

The media was there. Channel 4 was filming and they did a 2-3 minutes spot at 10. The Times Picayune did a story on Buddy and Annie Spell, Cindy's legal council, who are from the area. I haven't been able to get my hands on that article yet. AP was there too.

I really appreciated hearing from the marine. Seeing the incredible turn-out was inspiring. I was also glad to hear that Cindy still plans on riding the Peace Train from New Orleans to DC for the Sept 24th protest.

[pacalo]

2. Wow! It certainly was a good showing for Cindy.

Channel 4 was the one channel I didn't check at 10 because I thought I could catch a re-broadcast on Channel 15.

There was nothing about it in the Times-Picayune today.

I was hoping that I would get to meet you. In my quest to find you, I had asked a number of people if they knew about DU. There were a couple of people who said they lurked but didn't post. One was a blogger at salon. A number of them seemed to go to New Democracy Rising.

[funkybutt]

3. I was there with my chocolate lab "Lola"

that's probably the best way to spot me in a protest. Although in a crowd that big, I missed several people who i know were there. Did you catch the rebroadcast? Some of the Louisiana Activist Network people have it on tape. I think the times picayune article about buddy was the day before but there was a huge photo of the vigil on the front page of the Metro section the next day but only those in New Orleans got that.

I look forward to meeting you in the future. Maybe next time i'll wear a DU sticker on my shirt or something. Going out of town for a week so I won't be at the next two vigils but I encourage you to attend!

:hi:

[golden voyages]

4. Were you wearing a blue Peace Train t-shirt? If so, I'll say hi next time

I see you.

[funkybutt]

5. nope..i didn't have my peacetrain shirt on

but a lot of others did