It took 20 min. to get a C subway train uptown from Penn Station. The first one was so full they were grabbing hands to pull people in so the doors would close. The 2nd train was just as crowded but I got in.

There was a big crowd at the 72nd street stop. I set the poster I made on a cardboard gift paper roll (sticks were not allowed) down to take a picture and someone grabbed it. I could see them ahead, but figured it was a good donation, it would be difficult to manage the camera and poster at the march.

When I got to the street at 72nd I couldn't move. People were still backed up on the subway stairs pushing you out. After several minutes I was able to start inching my way toward Central Park West but was stopped and people were coming back saying you couldn't get thru. I went back to Columbus Ave and up to 75th and was able to get to Central Park West, but it was so crowed with marchers you couldn't move. The NJ Sierra Club did not have an organized meeting place or contact person, so were spread out.

I went up to 81st st where one of our local group members from Bridgewater was at the state of NJ and PA staging location with our Sierra Club banner. We did not start moving until 2:30, 3 hours after the start of the March.

It went smoothly but slowly.

More than 400,000 participated in New York. (Initial estimate from organizers was 310,000, Huffington Post and Time reported 400,000 and The police estimate was five to six hundred thousand.) In addition there were 2,808 solidarity events in 165 countries around the world.

The finish area got so crowded they texted people, who had signed up for their status updates, to disperse before they got to 11th Avenue.

I went into a pub at 9th and 42nd to have a beer and watch some football, then went down to 11th at about 6 and there was just one group left with music and dancing.

Everyone ought to do a protest march sometime. It's an American experience. A lot less trouble that the protest I observed in Berkeley in the 60's. I lost the empty tear gas canister I had kept as a memento. I still have the briefcase Morio Savio used to cary the student demands in the Free Speech Movement to UC president Clark Kerr.

I put some of my Climate March pictures at: donsnotes.com/sierraclub/RaritanValley/climate-march.html#summary


last updated 18 Feb 2013