Flashback to January 20, 1973. Nixon's second inauguration. The anti-war movement was not going to take it lying down. A counter inaugural protest march was organized. I was living in Baltimore and worked with the local anti-war community to organize buses. I was a marshal for the march, but managed to take some pictures (if you took too many pictures you were assumed to be FBI - people, including me, had become quite paranoid). The arm band above is my original marshal band. The button is original to the march. The US peace flag in one of the pictures is my flag and I carried it again 32 years later in the Spetember 24, 2005 March in Washington against the Iraq war and again in Washington on January 27, 2007. I'll pprobably carry it again on September 29, 2007. This is getting very old!!
This was one of the last, if not the last, major demonstrations against the war in Vietnam. For those who lived through the period from the buildup in 1965, through the turmoil of 1968, to the sweeping election victory by Nixon in 1972 (I have a button that reads "Nixon 49, America 1"), it sometimes felt like the sun was just going to keep going lower and lower in the sky before it disappeared altogether. I had worked for McGovern from the snows in New Hampshire through the November election, having quit my job in April and slept on floors in places like the Bronx in NYC. So, in a sense, even though our mood was very dark on January 20, 1973, times indeed were about to change. The "Winter Solstice" arrived with the Watergate Hearings and Nixon's resignation brought a new era, at least for a while. Will they change now after November 7, 2006? I'm not holding my breath*. We shall see......
*Update, August, 2007: It's good I'm not holding my breath. The Democrats are useless.
Phil Wallick
York, PA
These pictures are scans of 3"x 5" prints, taken January 20, 1973 :
Gathering at the Lincoln Memorial:
A sea of people (looking right from the steps of the LM):
From the top of the steps at the Memorial
:
The Baltimore contingent lining up to march:
Finally marching:
To the Ellipse for the rally:
