t was 4:30pm at the State Capitol, and about a thousand people stood in the streets. It didn't feel much different from an outdoor concert or street fair - dogs running about, kids seated on their parents' shoulders, a drum circle I avoided at all costs - except for the signs, which ran from the touching ("Bring My Brothers Home," "Teach Peace" ) to the ridiculous ("Republicans Are Fascist!" "Bush Is Hitler!"). My friend John held a sign - "American for Peace" - and talked with excitement about the noon protest on campus, how they had marched over to Guadalupe and 24th, sat in the middle of the road, blocked the intersection for four hours. Four hours! It had been amazing.
A friend and his wife joined us, pushing their baby in a stroller. "I see school has let out," he said as he looked around. A teen girl in a tight white tank top had written across her chest, "Boobs Not Bombs." A skate punk had written across his belly, "Fuck Bush. Vive la France."
A plane flew overhead, and a huge cheer erupted. It was trailing a banner that read: "If thy enemy is hungry, feed him."
A few minutes later, another plane flew overhead, another cheer, only this time the banner read "HOOTERS."

*****

By the time UT Journalism professor and honest-to-goodness lefty Bob Jensen took the stage, there were a few thousand, maybe more. "If we're gonna end this war, we need a far bigger crowd next time," said Jensen. "We need to make this crowd ten times bigger."
I stood in the wings, between two fiftysomethings who hooted everytime the Vietnam protests were mentioned and a hipster in thrift-store clothes, holding a sign that read, inexplicably, "Yo Mama's a Terrorist."
A representative for Sen. Lloyd Doggett read a statement of anti-war solidarity. "It will take decades to undue the damage done ... by this administration's failure of diplomacy."
Jensen was quick on his heels with a follow-up. "George Bush never tried diplomacy," he said. "All the world has called for diplomacy and George Bush has said NO again and again." In another life, Bob Jensen would have made one helluva preacher. "Diplomacy used to mean working toward peace. George Bush has redefined the word to mean actively working to get support for conflict."
"There's a madman in the White House!" Jensen shouted, to an eruption from the crowd. And later, "We have the global village, and now we have the global village idiot."
As the protesters began marching down Congress, I headed home. I was glad I'd gone, glad to be a part of the numbers, the numbers that would inevitably be reported in the daily paper and maybe all over the country. So many people oppose the way this war is being waged, so many people expect more from America -- hope that America can get its shit together, act with integrity and compassion and responsibility-- and it's important to make that known. But Bob Jensen doesn't represent my feelings about this conflict any better than Wolf Blitzer. Besides, I had a friend's poetry reading to attend.

*****

As it turns out, the daily paper this morning did not report the numbers from the Capitol. What they DID report was the scuffle that took place at the end of the protest - the tear gas, the refusal to disperse, 50 arrests, handcuffs, a violent end to an otherwise peaceful day. It made me sad. What had gone wrong? Hadn't the protesters been satisfied with seven hours, with shutting down the main thoroughfare of downtown so that they could march? I found myself sympathizing with the cops - these kids, wanting to get arrested, trying to get arrested, hungry for media attention. I shouldn't say anything. I wasn't there.
I will go to the next rally when it's held. I find it moving -- the kids and old folks swaying to folksy protest music, the excitement on my friend John's face when he talked about sitting in the middle of Gualadupe, holding back traffic, the beauty of free speech. The beauty of America.
But in general, I think I'd rather read Thomas Friedman, who announced in his column Wednesday that even though he opposes the war, he's going to focus on how the administration can best act to solve the situation as it stands. That's the kind of speech I want to listen to.