Out of Step

OUT OF STEP

there were protests against the war this weekend. there is no war yet but there were protests, preemptive protests against a preemptive war.

Michelle and i went to the new york public library on Saturday, oblivious. when we got there about 10 am there were a couple hand fulls of protesters on the steps. when we left about an hour later there were already about 100. as we walked down 5th avenue we passed multitudes, thousands, heading in the opposite direction toward the library, ground zero.

a surprisingly large number, way over a majority, carried signs. an unsurprising number were baby boomers, their hair gray, or is some cases white and curled also by the lack of melanin, their teeth yellowed, but on this occasion anyway, with still a spring in their step. there was a festive air among them. they looked excited and talked excitedly. "we're getting the band back together again," that's what came to my mind anyway.

down by the flatiron building there was a man in about his mid-forties with a younger male, perhaps his son. of a sudden the older man, carrying a placard, began high-skipping in the street beside the cars. i thought he was going to start blocking traffic or pounding on the hoods but that kind of thing came later. i was surprised at first by the harshness in the signs. "Cheney is Evil" with devils horns, similar ones about bush, the counterculture's iconic American flag with the swastika in place of the stars, "Down with American fascism." not harshness, hatred really. surprised at first but not when i thought about it. it had been that way over Vietnam.

the protests evacuated certain segments of the city. Chelsea has been the "in" arts section for the last few years and was where we were walking to Saturday when we stopped off at the library. the lady at the Whitney museum had given us a place to go to there so we turned right a couple blocks before the flatiron and walked in the cold.

the place was a building from the industrial age, which had been converted into 9 floors of artists studios and small galleries. we decided to take the elevator to the top and work our way down. Saturday is the big day of the week for the artists in Chelsea. all of the big dealers and collectors go there. but today 90% of the studios in this building were empty. we went to one and the proprietress told us everyone was at the protest. she was listening to it on the radio herself. a couple of others were open but we were finding only one or two per floor so we left. later we went back to the hotel and saw on tv that some of the protesters had turned violent.

Artists can see things others can't. maybe they can see this too. And the public too. a majority of Americans oppose an attack on Iraqi at this time. it's not a common coalition--the artists and the public. but i can't see it myself. that night when we left the ballet there was an anti-war sign on the ground and i went over and stepped on it.

-Benjamin Harris