March 19, 2008
Video of 'Freeze-In' Against the War at Union Station
In addition to the long list of anti-war protests planned throughout the city today (we'll have some photos up from some of them later on), around 200 activists staged a "Freeze-In" protest at Union Station on Tuesday. In the video above, you can see several dozen people who "froze" in place for about a minute at 5 p.m. yesterday to mark the fifth anniversary of the Iraq war. The group, situated in the middle of the busy station at rush hour, then chanted "end the war" and other anti-war slogans. (h/t Nikolas Schiller)
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How spontaneous.
I like the creativity of the idea even if war protests have proved to be more than a bit quixotic over the last five years.
Yay. That was pretty staged. It definitely not as interesting as the Improv Everywhere performance in Grand Central.
What an intelligent group - it must have taken a lot of thought to accomplish this after seeing it done in NYC. Although airflow, like brain cells, in their parents basement is seemingly scarce.
losers.
Now I hate Dick Cheney, but it would've been hilarious if he went running through there knocking the schmucks over.
Maybe I should write for SNL.
that was creative. i don't think we'll get anything done until shrub is out of office, but you have to give them credit for creativity. a bunch of y'all are even more cynical than i am (didn't know that was possible)
holy effectiveness, batman.
I thought it was nice. At least they are speaking out..err quietly.
Ooh, what a statement. I'm moved. I can hardly contain my enthusiasm.
Gotta love professional protesters.
Wow, it must be very fulfilling to think of snarky comments to an anti-war demonstration.
A for effort, guys.
not making fun, just pointing out that i love the women who stopped with their arms up as if they are mid-stride. as if we couldnt tell you were frozen otherwise? hehehee
I protested this morning on the Metro by sitting in a seat and not moving while I read the Express. My protest had just as much effect on US foreign policy as these Union Station protestors.
Move on.
it's REALLY fulfilling!!!
Way too clustered, Grand Central was better, but ehh not abd
Wowsa.
Lot of hatin' going on here.
At least these people are doing something here.
Will it change anything? Probably not.
Is it original? No. But so what? Is there really anything 'original' left to do anymore?
But it's a damn sight more than the rest of us are doing.
So cut them some fucking slack already, you whiny bitches.
@ Oh Shizz:
Protesters who think they're making a difference by minimally inconveniencing a few minor figures in government and business are deluding themselves.
People who aren't already convinced of this war's stupidity aren't going to be swayed by smelly hippies or ultra-liberal women wearing pink.
All this did was make me think of that early 90's TV show called Out of This World in which the half-alien hottie could freeze everybody else by touching her fingers together. I think Burt Reynolds was the disembodied voice of her Dad, talking out of a big glowing rubics cube. Awesome. That show made just as big a statement as this protest.
Donating $2 to the Obama campaign is much more likely to help end the war than this little drama club pantomime....but you won't get on TV doing the former....and won't feel nearly as good about yourself.
I'm reminded of the Onion headline:
"Concept" Band Theoretically Good
@demonfafa
Why so much hate? Making the observation that protesting the war is an exercise in futility is itself an exercise in futility on par with actually protesting the war. The circle jerk is now complete.
@ Hillrat
Foiled again, I am.
See, that's the great thing about free speech. They're free to make their statement, we're free to ridicule it, others are free to accuse us of snark, I'm free to use the raw sewage trebuchet in my anti-war art installation "Untitled Number Two."
Special thanks to the ACLU for providing free counsel in that unfortunate incident at the State Department, as well as for and paying for Condi's dry cleaning. You can look forward to seeing all the video footage courtesy PooTube.
RecSpecs: Wow, I totally forgot about that show. But only because I had completely conflated it in in my memory with "A Small Wonder", an equally crappy sitcom that populated the odd world of straight-to-syndication sitcoms like Harry and the Hendersons.
eugh, i feel crankier than "cranky" after reading all of your sad little comments.
Actually, I'm going to hand to these and all the other protesters this week. Without them I would have totally forgotten about the war. Oh wait, no, I would have remembered but just not cared.
Oh and the reason to criticize protests like this is that the people that do these things might actually be swayed by anonymous blog comments.
I normally criticize protests like these because they tend to give the participants an "at least I'm doing something about it" sense of superiority, which I think is unearned. It's kind of like the delusion that comes over people that believe that since you're "speaking to power" what you're saying is necessarily truthful.
And yes, pointing this out does give me a potentially unearned sense of superiority. I accept that risk.
"People who aren't already convinced of this war's stupidity aren't going to be swayed by smelly hippies or ultra-liberal women wearing pink."
But that raises a question.. the "smelly hippies" and "ultra-liberal women wearing pink" have been protesting for many years (some since before the war began), back when public opinion regarding the war was different.
So the hypothetical is, would public opinion be the same today if these groups had given up all protest on March 19, 2003?
So people shouldn't protest unless they're guaranteed to change things? I'm not a fan of the Code Pink people either, but man.
This cries for the sort of attention that only tear gas, batons, and rubber bullets can provide.
They need to take a cue from the IMF/World Bank protestors and use marionettes. That's some s**t, right there. I refuse to even consider any political opinion unless it involves puppets and, if possible, full frontal nudity.
Perhaps they would consider a Vulva Puppets for Peace initiative? If so, they may put me down for a contribution of $100.
I cringe more at the thought of 100% of all Americans droning on through their lives while our nation creates abhorrent policies than I cringe at silly puppet-wielding protests, so I'm just gonna throw this out there and see if it sticks:
It may be true that these guys are unlikely to change any votes, but I think there's something to be said for telling the rest of the world that we disagree with our leaders. We're very hated internationally right now, and seeing tens of thousands of people marching on the nation's capital might actually garner us some good will, with other people noticing, "Hey look, they're not all warmongering corporate whores!" Sure, this might not make the news in the U.S., but I bet some international stations -- you know, the ones that actually cover news -- will pick it up even as just a minor story.
War protests are a misnomer at this point, they should be re-imagined as "pro-Hey, we all agree the war resembling insurgent battle we're mired in sucks dick in a bad way so future leader of 2009 what are you going to do to save thousands of soldiers' lives?-tests"
@heather:
So we should protest because that would make Europeans happy?
It's a shame that Alf wasn't in the protest also, because then I think this thread may have hit every so-bad-it's-good show from the late 80s.
Except Fraggle Rock.
Heather- stick to the art reviews.
Thanks,
Warmongering Corporate Whore
Well, if we want to garner more European attention, we need to protest like they do. Full. Frontal. Nudity.
The rest of the world has been hating America since we stopped being isolationists around Woodrow Wilson's time. That's nothing new, and anyway, the American Century ended around 1985. The world belongs to India and China now. It's their turn to f*** it up. Our only export of any major relevance is pop kultur. And once Bollywood and Hong Kong completely supplant Hollywood, we can look forward to a new pantheon of Punjabi action heroes, their chop sockey love interests, and even more and better tentacle and bukkake porn.
Besides, their hate has made them powerful. Now, fulfill your destiny and take your father's place at my side!
"I know! To protest the deaths of thousands in a destructive and expensive international conflict, we'll rip off a train station viral comedy sketch!
Jerks.
Heather - thanks for saying your piece, it's appreciated.
-- A non-warmongering, non-corporate oaf
honestly, hillman and the rest of you protester apologists...all these people do is screw things up for you and i...you and i who most likely agree that the death of thousands of us soldiers and normal iraqi citizens is a bad thing...you and i who want the war to end
is g dubs affected? is cheney affected? is any policy-changing official affected? no...not at all...you want to protest, screw the guy making the decisions, not the guy getting screwed by the decisions...yes, that might take some actual thought, but is that a bad thing?...so no, i won't cut these schmucks any fucking slack
I actually didn't say it was a reason for protesting, just one possible result. In other words, perhaps it's not totally pointless.
I was just throwing it out for discussion, but clearly there's way too much vitriol going on for any of that to happen here. I actually think a lot of the protesting is pretty ridiculous, but I can't imagine getting so worked up about it. Our commutes suck pretty bad on lots of days in D.C., after all.
Speaking of whores, I TOTALLY blanked that March 4 was International Sex Workers Day! One of the neighborhood girls only mentioned it as an aside. And they were having a special 2-4-1 all-you-can-eat special that day. Have to pencil that into my dayplanner for next year. And by that I mean "write it next to the tattoo that says 'remember sammy jankis.'"
You just don't get it, do you Heather? The protesters are actually standing up and expressing their deeply held views in public - actually exercising their constitutional rights to free expression.
Post-modernists MUST mock them.
@Hillman:
"At least these people are doing something here.
Will it change anything? Probably not.
Is it original? No. But so what? Is there really anything 'original' left to do anymore?
But it's a damn sight more than the rest of us are doing.
So cut them some fucking slack already, you whiny bitches."
Your comments are reflective of the attitude of this city, which is perhaps why it is such a bastion of mediocrity.
"Hey look, they're not all warmongering corporate whores!"
...
"clearly there's way too much vitriol going on for any of that to happen here."
gee... you wonder why?
guest121 -- i hear you that gwb and dick aren't going to change their minds because of what a few protesters say, but what if no one said anything?
is it a good idea to totally ignore things until after jan. 2009? if they thought no one was paying attention, wouldn't they be tempted to push things further (aka war with other countries whose first three letters are I-R-A)?
Mudda Flubba...you're just so hip
you COMPLETELY miss the point...too often people speak just for the sake of speaking...how about this? think about the effectiveness of your words and actions...try to actually reach the people that can make change...i know, it's a novel idea...efficiency and effectiveness are counter to the slacker mantra, but just try...you'd be surprised at the results