New York, New York

I read on CNN last night when I got home crowd esitmates were around 450,000. That may have since been revised. To give you an idea of how many people there were, people stood shoulder to shoulder from 34th street along 7th avenue all the way down to Canal street. That's around 40 or so NYC blocks. You can't even see half that distance due to the curveture of the earth. 34th is where the empire state building is and canal is just north of TriBeCa and just south of SoHo. Basically, it's a good long distance.

I got to New York around 11 AM or so; I went for a walk in Greenwich village since it was close to where we were starting (14th and 7th ave). I saw the Greenwich ralley and they were moving kind of slowly at this time and by the time I had decided to turn around go meet up with the rest of the march at meeting point they were still several blocks down 14th approaching from the West.

Chelsea and the crew from the south had their own ralley which had been going on since the very early AM met up with the ralley from the south. The folks from East village and alphabet town then converged on us from the east and the police slowly shuttled all the smaller rallies in, opening up the baracades for them.

After the march got going a large contingent from Westchester County had been marching along 20th or so street and met up with us and they were later shuttled in.

The energy there was really incredible. I am sure most of the images you will see will just be a few select people, but the vast vast vast majority of the people in crowd were normal people who wanted to support a common cause. One woman had a sign that read: I am a middle class , married, white women with two children. In other words, she was saying: this is America. Yes, there were radicals there was a lot of fringe groups also, but that's to be expected.

A common theme was "this is what democracy looks like". When we marched past any Fox news truck we boo'd. lol. When there was one from a competing newssource close by we cheered them. Several times we cheered the cops who where very cool to those who weren't being complete idiots. Once or twice there was a chant "give the cops a contract" because the police may or may not be protesting in a couple days since they are currently without a contract.

The sound was at times pleasent, other times earth shaking and defening, and at others symply amazing and awe inspiring. I can not describe it properly.I have been to some big concerts in my time. Greatful Dead in 95 at Highgate VT, Phish at Clifford Ball in 96 so I have seen big crowds before, but nothing, and I do mean nothing like this.

It took me three hours to march the route from 14th along 7th down to 34th and past MSG, where we all boo'd like crazy and yelled "shame", around to Broadway and down to Union Square - around two miles. All the water vendors had sold out water by the time I got to them along the route and I was about to die when I got to Union Square. Luckily there was a bunch of water for sale (on dollar) and I bought some water and then went and took a nap in the park for about an hour up against a tree. It was very pleasent, ironically, with tens of thousands of people walking around.

I went to the East Village to go get some eats. I'm not sure how many of you know the East Village but it is probably the most eclectic collection of resteraunts in a single neighborhood anywhere. This is also the dollar bin place of trendy clothing. East Village is probably one of major trend setting places of America. Also, it's not very expensive and the people are people are cool and layed back. Not normal, but layed back.

New York is very Neighborhoody. Especialy Manhatten. If you live in Manhatten then you also live in a neighborhood and this is what identifies you and it's a big deal. If you live on lower east side your probably Jewish or Chinese. If you live off Union Square your probably a hardcore liberal who is also a health nut. If you live in SoHo your a beat poet, artist, or you own a gallery. If you live in TriBeCa your just like the people in SoHo except add the word "starving" to that. And, in the east village you could be anything, really. This is where you go to see people with a 12" long spiked mohawk with purple hair and 3" ear plugs. But, you are just as likely to see a woman pushing a kid along in a stroller on her way to church (there is a church right smack in the middle of St. Marks). It really is an eclectic mix and what I like to think of as the ultimate in acceptance.

So, I went to this 24/7 resteraunt called Yafa's Cafe which I have read good things about and I was not disapointed. They served all kinds of great Mediteranean food with a Lebanese theme. I got the Pene pasta and a couple beers and it was wonderful. For a 10 dollar main course in NYC this was a top notch meal. By this time it was time to hop the 6 train and go back to Grande Central for the train ride back to Poughkipsie.

All in all, I enjoyed myself and it was a good feeling, one which I will be able to look back on with good thoughts.