WOW. I went to peace march at Churchill Square yesterday. I estimate the crowd had to be at least 5000 strong. It was beautiful. When I came upon the scene from the LRT station, it took my breath away. Families were there with babies on their backs. Dogs sniffed each other and the many feet sweeping across their paths. People beat their hand drums. Colour was every where, rendered soft by the wispy clouds of breath billowing into the crisp winter air. Even the cops on the side lines were smiling. Cars honked their horns on the way by. Some people chanted slogans, others sang, some just quietly smiled in solidarity. Older ladies held their placards, slogans, and art work high on either side of the crowd as it passed. Muslims walked beside Christians, walked beside pagans, walked beside Jews, Hindis, atheists, agnostics, and on it goes. There were black, East-Asian, West-Asian, Native-Canadian, white people, etc. all chanting for peace together. Young hipsters, old hipsters, students, families, friends, blue-colars, white-colars, healthy people, crazy people, disabled people, everyone was there. It was so moving that I got all choked up and started crying. People looked at me funny but I didn't care. I got up on every bus stop bench along the way to take pictures. I'll post them as soon as I figure out how. The placards revealed all kinds of diverse reasons for being there. I didn't have one. Didn't feel like I needed one. Even if the powers that be don't listen to us, I was just there to stand up and be counted. If the world ends tomorrow, I can rest assured that I made it clear that I'm on the side of peace. I'm not anti-American. I'm not pro-Iraq per se. I am anti-war precisely because I don't want to see any more wasteful deaths, on either side. After all, it's usually the innocents on the front lines, which Americans are sadly discovering with the persistent terror warnings lately. I think many of my fellow Edmontonians feel the same way. I don't usually like to get all political on my readers, but this one was worth it. Happy Peace Day.