We started with a bit of music. Some radical songs to get the blood flowing.

One of these speakers was the woman from Representative Anna Eshoo's office. That person read a letter from the Congresswoman in which she made comments about how unfortunate the Bush Administrations policies are. I don't remember any other incumbents having anything to say at the event. I think the other speaker is from the Palo Alto Human Relations Commission, who has passed a resolution opposing another Gulf War.

Paul George was the MC for the event. He introduced the speakers and gave brief bios of them, as well as saying things like "It's beautiful to see so many powerful people here", or "the last I heard, the Porta-Potties we ordered for the event were still in San Francisco." It seemed like an hour later that he got a good cheer for announcing they had finally shown up.

Reverend Jeff Vamos and Reverend Diana Gibson were religious leaders for peace. They made quite an impression on me by saying that among the steps they would be taking was to offer sanctuary in their churches for conciencious objectors. They made it very clear that they would be using the power of the pulpit to oppose the Bush administrations war.

Caroline Picker was introduced as a Stanford Student. She explained that as the home of some the most conservative leaders in the country, Stanfords students have a special job to do, turning around their institution.

Joel Beinin is a History Professor and a Jewish Voice For Peace from behind the palm curtain (Stanford). He talked about how the people at the Hoover Institution created the Iraq attack strategy years before 911, and then had it sitting on the shelf waiting for an opportunity to be used. He said a war against Iraq would be a war for oil and empire.

This guy had a Polish accent. He talked about walking on Mir Mirou St., a short private street on the bay side of the Santa Cruz mountains. He explained that the name was the Russian words for "World Peace", rendered in the font used for all American street signs. Then he talked about how surreal it is to see the leaders of the Country that he grew up in pandering to Washington the same way they used to pander to Moscow. Got me thinking about the rip tides of international affairs.

Dana spoke on behalf of the Santa Clara County Green Party. She quoted from the USGP press release that made it clear that the Green Party is opposed to the current Bush Administrations proposed war. "We are the Party of Peace!" was her message. She invited anybody that wanted to join us to come over to the Green Party table to register as a Green Party member.

These guys talked about how for them, as people of color from East Palo Alto, the war is right here in their struggle to find jobs and housing and education as minority youth on an upscale white Peninsula. They talked about how the jobs of their parents generation had been exported to places where wages were lower. They explained that they weren't going to give up and they weren't going to go away in the form of a poem.

Alpesh Patel is the President of San Mateo County Peace Action. He said that the most important thing that we can do is talk about the things we learned here with others when we get home. Yes it is very powerful to have 5,000 people show up for a march, but that isn't going to turn the country around. Everybody has to participate in the discussion to make that happen.

Barbara Lubin is the Executive Director of the Middle East Childrens Alliance. She said more than a million children have been killed by sanctions since the Gulf War began a decade ago. "As the country behind the sanctions, we have a lot of responsibility for that" was part of what she had to say. She has taken something like five trips to the Palestinian areas since then, and she wanted us all to tell our CongressCritters to stop funding the occupation by the Israelis.

There were other speakers, but I can't remember much about what they said....

I think the Black woman on the right is the President of the local NAACP. She told us that her organization had passed a resolution opposing war with Iraq, and then proceeded to read it to us.