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Today's
Stories
September 3,
2004
Stephen Green
Serving
Two Flags: the Bush Neo-Cons and Israel
September 2,
2004
Jeffrey St.
Clair
High
Plains Grifter: Part 3: More Pricks Than Kicks
Max Gimble
Et Tu, Menchu? Extrajudicial Killings and Clandestine Graves
in Guatemala
James Petras
President Chavez and the Referendum: Myths and Realities
Christopher
Brauchli
Bush and the Afghan Electoral Model: "If They Want to Vote
Twice, Let Them"
Todd Chretien & Jessie
Muldoon
Will the Democrats Expel Zell Miller?
Jack Random
Spite and Venom Day: the Turncoat and the Profiteer
Alan Maass
The Real Vietnam
Christa Allen
Contre Bush
Website of
the Day
[Redacted]
September 1,
2004
Alexander Cockburn
The
Stench of Doom
Kathleen and Bill Christison
Poor Larry Franklin
Dave Lindorff
Kerry's Litmus Test
Josh Frank
Protest in White: Not All of New York Rises Up
John L. Hess
Moles, Scoops and Flip Flops
Mike Whitney
Deconstructing Arnold
Jack Random
Kindergarten Night at the RNC
Andrew Wilson
War on the Pachyderms: Why Do Elephants Hate Us?
Jeffrey St.
Clair
High
Plains Grifter: Part Two: Mark His Words
August 31,
2004
Joseph Nevins
Escapism
and Global Apartheid: The Dominican Republic & the NYTs
Matt Vidal
Beyond
Bush's Rhetoric on the Economy
Neve Gordon
Kerry and the Middle East
Dave Lindorff
Bush
the Peace Candidate?
Mike Whitney
NPR Leads the Charge for War Against Iran
Jack Random
Opening Night: Playing the War Card
Jeffrey St.
Clair
High
Plains Grifter: the Life and Crimes of George W. Bush (Part One)
CounterPunch Photo of the Day
Pete Seeger in NYC
August 30,
2004
Justin Podhur
The
Disappeared Mayor
Shaun Joseph
The
Hypocrites at TheNaderbasher.com
Mike Whitney
Israeli Moles in the Pentagon: What More Could They Possibly
Want?
Ron Jacobs
Live, From New York: the Majority of Protesters Claimed No Candidate
David Lindorff
Sunday in Manhattan: the Sound of Marchin', Chargin' Feet, Boy
Dave Zirin
USA Basketball: The Team White America Loved to Hate
Sam Husseini
Israeli Spying on the US: a Long History
Sex,
Drugs & the Blues!
Serpents in the Garden
CounterPunch's
Sizzling New Book on Culture and Sex is Now Available
Click here to purchase
August 28 /
29, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Zombies
for Kerry
Patrick Cockburn
Najaf Ceasefire Good for Iraq, But Weakens Allawi and US
Ray McGovern
Blowing Smoke on Intelligence
Dr. Juan Romagoza
From El Salvador to Abu Ghraib: Reflections of Torture Survivor
Ray Hanania
An Israeli Spy in the Pentagon? Ridiculous!
Fred Gardner
Eddie Lepp Busted by DEA: Facing Life for Growing Medical Pot
Diane Christian
Big Men: the Better Leader Lets You Live
William S. Lind
The Desert Fox
Paul D'Amato
The Left Takes a Dive for Kerry
Joshua Frank
Greens at the Crossroads
Mickey Z.
Media Declares War on Anti-War Protests
Winslow T. Wheeler
Sen. McCain's Pork Chops: an Exchange
Justin E.H.
Smith
The New Age Racket and the Left
Thomas St. John
Burning Slaves at the Stake: On "Sinners in the Hands of
an Angry God"
Ali Tonak
Help the NYPD?
Mark Engler
New York Says "No"
Justin Felux
Haiti: the Attica of the Americas
Poets' Basement
Gelman, Albert, Ford and Hamod
August 27,
2004
Gary Leupp
Neocon
Musings
Robin Cook
The
Ghosts of Abu Ghraib
Diane Christian
Disarming
Michael Donnelly
Situational Democracy: the Show Me the Green Party?
Jack Random
4F and Other Heroes: an Army of War Resisters
Mike Ferner
"To the Swift Boats!"
Mazin Qumsiyeh
7000 Palestinian Political Prisoners
Veronza Bowers, Jr.
"You Won't Be Leaving Tomorrow"
August 26,
2004
M. Shahid Alam
The
Clash Thesis: a Failing Ideology?
Diane Christian
War
Rules: Bush is No Sun Tzu
Derek Seidman
"They're As Bad As Wal-Mart:" Starbucks Workers Get
Organized
David Lindorff
Court to RNC Protesters: Drop the Rally
Christopher
Brauchli
Signs of Dissent: the Bush in the Bubble
Stew Albert
Reporting Suspicious Activity
Mark Donham
Judgement in Athens: Give the Koreans Their Day in Court
Saul Landau
Pinochet:
the Al Capone of the Southern Cone
Website of
the Day
The Kerry 527 Ad You'll Never See
August 25,
2004
Amelia Peltz
Can
I Have 9.8 Seconds of Your Time?
Noah Leavitt
Defining and Redefining Torture
Ron Jacobs
Takin' It to the Streets: It's Not About the Election, It's About
Democracy
James Brooks
Coronado Crosses the Jordan
Akiva Eldar
How to Win the Jewish Vote: Turn Gaza into a "Mini-Afghanistan"
Gemma Araneta
Chavez's New Brand of Populism
Philip Cryan
Uribe's Boys: the Death Squads of Colombia
CounterPunch Wire
Cheney Opens the Closet Door
August 24,
2004
Jeremy Scahill
John
Kerry: the Warchurian Candidate
Gary Leupp
"We
Want Them to Go Away"
David Domke
God
Willing: an Echoing Press and Political Fundamentalism
William Loren Katz
The Meaning of Hugo Chávez: Black and Indian Power in
Venezuela
Jonah Gindin
With Chavez? Reading the International Private Media
Fran Schor
Denying Atrocities: From Vietnam to Fallujah
Joe Bageant
Driving
on the Bones of God
Website of the Day
The Great America Lockdown: a Primer for the RNC
August 23,
2004
Winslow Wheeler
Don't
Mind If I Do: Porkbarrel and the War on Terror
John Pilger
Bush
May Be the Lesser Evil
Stan Goff
Swift
Boat Dogfight
Bill and Kathleen
Christison
Notes
from the West Bank: Build, Demolish, Rebuild
Mike Whitney
The Unraveling of Afghanistan
William Blum
Brave
New World of Iraqi Sovereignty
Ralph Nader
A Letter to the Washington Post: a Shameful and Unsavory Editorial
August 21 /
22, 2004
Cockburn /
St. Clair
"They
Want Blood:" The Bi-Partisan Origins of the Total War on
Drugs
Landau / Hassen
Failing
the Mission? Form a Commission
Brian Cloughley
The
Bush Team in Iraq: Moral Cowardice, as Practiced by Experts
Josh Frank
Nader as David Duke? The ADL Wants You to Think So
Mike Whitney
Reincarnating Mengele: the Torture Doctors of Abu Ghraib
Ron Jacobs
Day Labor Blues
Mickey Z.
Shooting at Whales: 40 Years After Tonkin
Fred Gardner
Dr. Wolman Comes Out: The Cannabis Consultants
Dave Zirin
Uprising in Athens: Iraqi Soccer Team Gives Bush the Boot
Josh Saxe
Witnessing Police Brutality in LA
Yanar Mohammed
Letter from Baghdad: a Democracy of Killings and Bombings
Helen Williams
Ali's Story: a Taste of Reality from Baghdad
Michael Donnelly
Elemental and NaturalForests, Fire and Recovery
Elizabeth Schulte
The Crisis in Affordable Housing
Poets' Basement
Adler, Albert, Virgil, Ford and Krieger
Hot Stories
Alexander Cockburn
Behold,
the Head of a Neo-Con!
Subcomandante
Marcos
The
Death Train of the WTO
Norman Finkelstein
Hitchens
as Model Apostate
Steve Niva
Israel's
Assassination Policy: the Trigger for Suicide Bombings?
Dardagan,
Slobodo and Williams
CounterPunch Exclusive:
20,000 Wounded Iraqi Civilians
Steve
J.B.
Prison Bitch
Sheldon
Rampton and John Stauber
True Lies: the Use of Propaganda
in the Iraq War
Wendell
Berry
Small Destructions Add Up
CounterPunch
Wire
WMD: Who Said What When
Cindy
Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter
I Can't Hear From
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
Click
Here for More Stories.
|
September 3,
2004
Music to My
Ears
Sunday's
New York City March
By
GARY LEUPP
Returning home very late from an exhilarating
day in New York City, I was too tired to watch more than about
twenty minutes of CNN. How was this "most trusted"
of news channels going to cover the massive anti-war, anti-Bush
demonstration I'd just attended? During the time I watched, there
was one single reference to "Republicans and protesters
converging on New York City." Monday morning's Boston
Globe was better; the front page headline was "Crowds
Protest as GOP Gathers: Hundreds of Thousands March Against Bush,
War, " and the article duly noted that estimates of participants
"neared 400,000 people." Later the cops gave a figure
of 120,000, which for reasons explained below, I find unbelievably
low.
Arriving by bus around 10:00,
I was milling around at the head of the assembly area on Seventh
Avenue where the photographers were congregating. Beyond that
point, although I didn't quite realize the significance at the
time, were barricades on both sides of the street separating
it from the sidewalk. Feeling famished, I looked around for a
place to eat, and almost entered a noodle shop when looking back,
I realized I could get some good shots of Danny Glover and Michael
Moore with my cell phone camera. So back on the street, I started
walking up it, looking for a place to eat, and seeing one, asked
one of the army of NYPD officers if I could just, you know, cross
through to do that.
"No," was the wearily
rehearsed reply. "You have to stay on the route." Damn!
I thought. I should know this by now. Still, the police-state
stupidity of it really irritated me and my empty stomach. I asked
several more officers as I walked forward, thinking maybe someone
would give me a break, and also, I confess, if only through body
language and facial expressions pose the question, "Aren't
you embarrassed to enforce this insane infringement on my constitutional
rights?" One of New York's finest told me, politely, "You
have to go up to 34th street. Then you can get out."
Fine, I thought. The demo for some reason was still assembling.
I could head up half a dozen city blocks to 34th, have a bite
and then join the multitude as it arrived. However, on arrival,
I noticed that barricades cordoned off the corner of 7th and
34th. Huis clos. More interaction with cops. One escorted
a journalist lady with child in arms through a barricade, and
I thought I'd go along with them, but, no, this was not allowed.
Finally I spoke to an officer who said I could leave the route
but couldn't return to the avenue thereafter.
"What if I take the sidewalk back to 7th and 22nd, then
re-enter the route?" The officer didn't know if that was
possible. "Okay, well, if I leave here, will I be able to
march along the sidewalk through the whole route down 5th Avenue
to Madison Square Park and then down Broadway?" He didn't
know but I figured I'd risk it. So I passed through the barricade,
took the sidewalk down 34th, past Broadway, and bought a slice
of pizza somewhere. The cashier, a very young woman with a
strong Spanish accent, said, "Yeah, get out." Took
me a moment to realize she was referring to my button, "Get
Out of Iraq NOW." She was very supportive of the demo and
told me to be careful because the cops can be very violent. As
I ate, an aging hippie-type came in and sat down at the next
table. I asked him if he planned to reenter the route. Of course,
he replied, and when I mentioned my experience he explained,
as though dealing with a timid child, that all you need to do
is leapfrog over or just separate the barricades and walk through.
I had noticed, actually, that police presence was thin on 34th,
so leaving the pizzeria to the young woman's warm "Good
luck," I happened to notice someone scooting through a barricade
which was missing a couple bars. So there I was, in the demo,
now vigorously underway, able to march with the beautiful assembly
all the way to the terminus at Union Square. I arrived towards
the head, and as is my wont on such occasions, found a venue
from which to watch the whole procession pass. This was Punch
Restaurant and Bar, on 913 Broadway, between 20th and 21st Streets.
A very friendly attractive blonde woman named Isha is the manager
there and was most enthusiastic about the march, which she kept
watching from the doorway. One of the staff members wore an antiwar
button. Very friendly place. I recommend the East Coast Corn
and Lobster Chowder for $7.00.
I sat for two hours, while other marchers, clearly identifiable
by their buttons and Posters, came in. I jotted notes on a napkin,
counting the number of marchers passing by. From time to time
I counted how many passed in one minute, the estimate rough,
of course, but this is the best one can do. The figure I recorded
most often (the mode) was 180 people per minute, although at
times there were only about 120, and at times over 300. There
were some densely packed contingents, and lots of desultorily
ambling random collections of good people. By 3:00 I conservatively
estimated that a minimum of 200,000 must have passed by.
Just at that moment, I heard the Star Spangled Banner.
Now, given the profusion of Stars & Stripes (in original
or improved versions) in the march, and the sincere belief of
some Americans that patriotic symbols can retain a progressive
content (even when they cause the world's people to have bad
dreams, vomit, or explode in rage), I thought, Okay, some of
the "peace is patriotic" folks are making their point.
But it wasn't quite what I expected, not the Francis Scott Key
version (about "bombs bursting in air" proving that
"our flag was still there") but something quite different.
Stop the war, stop the war
Stop the war, stop the war
Then a miracle occurred. All
nineteen people in Punch Restaurant, including staff, joined
in. Oh, the brilliance of this! I thought. But how to match this
minimalist lyric to the melody, at that gut-challenging "what
so PROUDLY we hailed" part? Easy. It became, omitting the
first definite pronoun:
Stop WAR! Stop the war
Stop the war, stop the woa-or
Stop the war, stop the war
Stop the war, stop the war
Stop WAR! Stop the war
Stop the war, stop the war
The climax:
Oh, stop, stop, stop the
war,
Stop the woa-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-woa-or
Stop the war! Stop the war
Stop the war! Stop thaaaaa-ah war!
I swear, the whole bistro resounded
with this, very loudly, everybody hitting the notes, as passing
marchers peered inside in bemused delight.
This is of course a very difficult
tune to sing. I confess I do it well, myself, having some practice
in vocal music and a good range. But I don't as a rule sing this
particular melody, because of all the unpleasant associations,
although one must recall that the tune itself, by John Stafford
Smith, originally accompanied the English drinking song (ca.
1780), "To
Anacreon in Heaven." (Imagine instead of "O say
does that Star-Spangled Banner yet wave/ O'er the land of the
free and the home of the brave" Ralph Tomlinson's original
lyric: "And besides I'll instruct you like me to entwine/
The myrtle of Venus and Bacchus's vine.")
"Anacreon" is fine,
but I like this recent composition, born on the streets of New
York, even better.
Gary Leupp is Professor of History at Tufts University,
and Adjunct Professor of Comparative Religion. He is the author
of Servants,
Shophands and Laborers in in the Cities of Tokugawa Japan;
Male
Colors: The Construction of Homosexuality in Tokugawa Japan;
and Interracial
Intimacy in Japan: Western Men and Japanese Women, 1543-1900.
He is also a contributor to CounterPunch's merciless chronicle
of the wars on Iraq, Afghanistan and Yugoslavia, Imperial
Crusades.
He can be reached at: gleupp@granite.tufts.edu
Weekend
Edition Features for August 7 / 8, 2004
James Petras
The
Anatomy of "Terror Experts": Meet the Mandarins of
Abu Ghraib
Fred Gardner
Run
Ricky Run: Football, Pot and Pain
Justin Delacour
Anti-Chavez Pollsters Panic: Fix Numbers; Reinvent Venezuela
Brian Cloughley
Persecuted by All; Supported by None: Who Would Be A Kurd?
Joshua Frank
The
Outsider: a Talk with Ralph Nader
Iain A. Boal
On "Shame": Warmed-Over Orientalism and Racist Projection
Chris Floyd
All About Eve: Open Season on Women in DC and Rome
Andrew Fenton
Fighting for Democracy and Justice in Haiti
Aseem Shrivastava
Saga of an Anguished Afghan
Neil Corbett
See Cuba: Sometimes a Cigar is Just a Cigar, Mr. Bush
Carol Miller
/ Forrest Hill
Rigged Convention; Divided Party: How David Cobb Won with Only
12% of the Vote
Tarek Milleron
Breaking the Principled Voter
Donald Macintyre
The
Battle of Najaf
Ron Jacobs
Spirits of The Dead: Why I Love My Petty Bourgeois Tendencies
Mickey Z.
Kid
Gavilan's Grave: Propaganda Scores a TKO
Poets' Basement
Adler, Ford and Albert
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