There’s a fair bit of blogging out there about the Freedom Walk — though surprisingly few photos on Flickr. I went to the Unity Walk instead (and ran into Paulo of How Now, Brownpau?), but here are a couple of interesting bits of blogospheric coverage:
- StealthBadger went down to the Mall and reports on what he saw there, including a couple of idiots who decided to add offensive messages to their shirts (and will star on right-wing websites for years to come) but who amazingly managed to escape bodily injury.
- Rev. Mykeru attended and has video of some of his (Michael Moorish) interviews with participants — mostly asking them to sign up with the military (part of Operation Yellow Elephant.
- Campus Progress has photos.
- Thomas Nephew has the story of what happened to him at the start of the walk. He made the New York Times:
Earlier in the day, several protesters appeared to run into trouble with the large police presence at the Pentagon and along the route. One man who registered for the walk was detained by a Pentagon police officer after he slipped a black hood over his head and produced a sign that read, “Freedom?”
The man was removed from the Pentagon registration area, handcuffed and taken away in a police car. It was not clear whether he was charged or simply detained and the police did not respond to messages requesting more information.
Update: AltHippo has a report as well.
DC: 9/11/2005
Today was September 11th, 2005: a Sunday. As with most Sundays, I started it with church. Here is me in the choir rehearsal room, where…
—How Now, Brownpau? • 6:40 pm, September 13
“…including a couple of idiots who decided to add offensive messages to their shirts (and will star on right-wing websites for years to come) but who amazingly managed to escape bodily injury.”
Mostly everyone looked too tired to care, though I expect they got some dirty looks at the first part of the walk. Considering the irony of the event was lost on these people, and most of the energy they had was expended on walking from Arlington to the Reflecting Pool, the idiots had nothing to fear.
Going through my notes, I also saw an older activist who took his shirt, drew a circle-slash over the event logo, and wrote “Pentagon Propoganda” over it. That was neat. He took a friend’s shirt and did the same thing to it, safety-pinning it to his back so the message was visible from both sides. That’s a message I can get behind.
—StealthBadger • 11:12 am, September 14