Not Your Sweetie

Candle Light vigil in Union Square (NYC)

At 7 PM we went do do our part in the Moveon international action.
We chose that spot not just because it's close (we had a richness of locations next to us). But
ever since 9.11 Union Square has been a spontaneous place for us to get together and find our
sanity amongst the warmongering rhetoric. Tonight more than half of the park was filled up -
I'd say several thousands of people were there. On the steps on the South of the Park a street
show was going on. At 7:00 PM they respectfully stopped for us. A group came singing softly
"We shall overcome" and we joined in. A guy with a box of chalk was drawing hearts on the
pavement and giving away chalk. Our little girl got pretty good at writing "NO WAR" (pretty
much the extent of her writing so far). We then gave the chalk to other kids (There were
plenty of them around. There was one deranged man yelling about a cousin lost in 9.11. Some
tried to explain to him the facts but the man came there to scream so scream he did - but
walking away very fast.
There was a great atmosphere and no cops in sight.
We left after 30 minutes (bed times to be kept) but the crowd was still there, and people
were still coming. From across the street, the thousands of lights on the steps looked like the
sky itself. People were asking us on the way home what was going on (since we were carrying
our lit candles). An older woman thanked us for doing this.
Some security guard asked very defensively what does this mean. "Peace? Is that a religious
thing?" "No. It's just a desire not to kill"