Peace then
Wistfully remembering
those dear old demos

As a veteran of many marches and demonstrations in Washington, D.C. where I went to college in the intensely political '60s and '70s, I can say that there was nothing then like this now. We had the energy, certainly, but not the tools like Internet to help with the organizing. Moreover, there was never so much advance warning, so much walk-up time.

For one thing, we had to gin up a reaction to breaking news -- like the sudden revelations that the US had been secretly bombing the bejesus out of Cambodia for months, or that Bobby and Martin had just been assassinated. Nixon and Kissinger didn't have the courtesy to talk about what they were planning to do a year ahead, as Bush and Rumsfeld have done.

But, oh, will any of these marches and demos ever be as sweet as the November Moratorium, the March on the Pentagon, The Day After the verdict in the Chicago 7 Trial or any of those spontaneous eruptions with the Weathermen on Ward, Washington and Dupont circles?

All we can do is go find out.