So I was reading over the previous Journal entry, and I remembered why I don’t normally write Journal entries in the early morning. Yeah, I was a bit scattered, as my writing was kind of all over the place, there. I don’t even remember writing about the conservatives being back on their meds, for one thing, but there it is, and then I kind of went off on a shoe tangent at the end.
Lesson to take from this: Writing Journal entries while still half-asleep is bad.
But nonetheless, I’m excited for tomorrow. Funk the War ought to be fun, as long as I’m smart about my cameras. It’s supposed to rain on and off, and after losing Big Mavica in a rainstorm, the policy is that as soon as it begins raining, Duckie becomes the active camera immediately, even if it means I am denied use of the Canon at a protest for the second time in a row. So we’ll see what happens on this final day of winter, as we, like, rock out in the streets and denounce the war.
Otherwise, though, my mind and body are telling me that unlike Anon raids, which have become routine (though still loads of fun), this is something special, because it only comes a few times a year. Seriously, my stomach goes all topsy-turvy over it, which, as I’ve described on multiple occasions in the past, is a combination of excitement, nervousness, and anticipation. I think it was most severe on September 24, 2005, when I honestly thought I was going to have to pull over on the side of the highway on the way up and blow chunks, but it happens to some extent just about every time, with the rare exception of one where I’m cool as a cucumber going in. Day 2 of October Rebellion was like that, but I think that was because the hardest part of the protest – Georgetown – was already in the can, and so it was all gravy from there.
Meanwhile, I was thinking today about how things have changed since I started really getting involved in activism. Since I started, the crowd has changed a bit, as SDS has come onto the scene, lending a name to DC’s radical community, and I’ve networked and socialized with a number of people very passionately involved in progressive causes. Additionally, there’s also the simple fact that for those involved in activism in college, many of the people from my early days have graduated and left the area, being replaced with new activists coming into town. That’s why I consider myself fortunate to have gotten my start in activism at the very end of my college career. Since it was a new interest at 21, with mere months to go before graduating, I was able to explore it without also having to deal so much with studies. And it seems to have paid off, as it’s been almost six years since my first protest, and I’m still going strong, and have started a career in advocacy, lending support to a tremendous team of dedicated people who are very passionate in their areas of expertise.
And now, though, it’s time to take it to the streets, and remind Barack Obama that it’s time to end what George Bush started, in both Iraq and Afghanistan, sooner rather than later.