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
Speak! Act! It's your right and really your responsibility. But do it effectively. Use your intelligence to come up with a way to reach the right people.
My point in all of this is that action for the sake of action is stupid and a waste of your time and mine.
good point Heather, it is positive for that reason alone.
This protest would only make sense if our soldiers and/or Iraqi civilians were being killed by the misguided use of liquid nitrogen. Or if the guards at Abu Ghraib subjected the prisoners to humiliating games of Freeze Tag.
@guest121:
Who are you (or anyone) to dismiss this as "action for the sake of action?" (I don't even know what that means, but it sounds...hip.) And words and symbols are meaningless and worthless too, right?
Dammit, there is value in protest. And as long as the the First Amendment guarantees our rights to peaceably assemble, petition the government for redress of grievances and freedom of speech, I will NEVER criticize anyone for loudly proclaiming their views, no matter how abhorrent I may find them.
Democracy's messy. People get inconvenienced sometimes. Live with it.
You're right. Doing something is better than doing it in an effective way. What a fool I am.
Good God. Speaking to you is like speaking to one of those parents protesting the closing of a delapadated DC public school.
Oh, to not be hindered by logic.
"you want to protest, screw the guy making the decisions, not the guy getting screwed by the decisions"
How did this protest screw anybody? It was literally one minute long.
Not exactly life-altering for those that happened by it.
"Your comments are reflective of the attitude of this city, which is perhaps why it is such a bastion of mediocrity."
But do you have an actual point to make?
And I wouldn't call DC a bastion of mediocrity. We dream of one day making it up to mediocre.
"You're right. Doing something is better than doing it in an effective way. What a fool I am."
No one is suggesting that protesting in Union Station, down Constitution Avenue or anywhere is else is THE most effective way of achieving ANY goal. I'm sure many of the protesters have taken other steps to make their voices heard. Written letters to their newspapers editors, called their congressional representative, whatever. The point is that public protest lies in the finest tradition of American civic life. That their protests will be utterly ignored by the people with the power to actually do something about the war (the current administration) does nothing to diminish that fact. What would you have these protesters do instead? Throw Molotov cocktails at the Pentagon? Withhold paying income taxes? As Hillman said, "it's a damn sight more than the rest of us are doing."
Let's assume you don't think much of this war, either. What ARE you doing about it?
it's not just this protest, it's a collection of them that do nothing but inconvenience the common schmo rather than affecting the right people
you can all be happy to know that i'm tired of saying the same thing over and over again so i'm not going to post anymore
you've effectively quelled my desire to exercise my first amendment rights any further
I will NEVER criticize anyone for loudly proclaiming their views, no matter how abhorrent I may find them.
hmmmm... maybe we should get David Klavitter to hook this guy up with some Black Hebrew Israelites... better audience for them, peace and quiet for him... everybody wins!
Mudda Flubba -
One last statement and then I'm gone. I do absolutely nothing to help end the war.
What I do is volunteer as often as I can to assist wounded vets assimilate back into our world. This is my humble opinion, but I think my volunteer work is a MUCH better use of time than standing still in Union Station for a minute.
i'm going to get you to reply guest121, because you raise a question with your last post here:
inconvenienving the common schmo is the only that can be done, because the people who we would like to inconvenience (bush, cheney, etc.) can't be inconvenienced due to the massive security apparatus that exists between us common schmos and those in charge of shit in this country. how could we affect their commute or make a bunch of noise that they would actually hear? get close enough to those in power and the police would mow you down in a hail of gunfire.
given that, how would you recommend that we affect the right people?
What would you have these protesters do instead? Throw Molotov cocktails at the Pentagon?
I seriously doubt any in that crowd would have the basic chemical know-how to construct and safely detonate a self-igniting incendiary device, let alone have the guts to try and get close enough to huck it at the Pentagon. Moot point anyway as I doubt that would accomplish much of anything, except maybe create in the mind of the public a link between the anti-war movement and terrorists who attack the Pentagon.
Marching and hunger strikes and monkeywrenching all get attention and get the point across. These sort of artsy forms of "lite protest" are as clever as a John and Yoko's bed-in and bagism and just about as effective.
I was downtown all day and all I saw was a bunch of kids on spring break who apparently didn't have time to read the weather report this morning.
"What I do is volunteer as often as I can to assist wounded vets assimilate back into our world."
It's great that you do this kind of work, guest121. That sort of thing makes a difference in many people's lives. How do you know that many of these protesters don't do similar work? True, the little time they take to make this point publicly may take time away from other worthwhile endeavors of theirs. But I wouldn't draw conclusions on what these folks do at home. You just don't know. Neither do I. But I think it's presumptuous to conclude anything about their motivations.
Keep up the good work.
I was going to help the wounded vets, but then they told me I couldn't pick just the hot ones to help, so I said no.
I think the point is that THIS particular protest, and most of the anti-war protests in general are just pointless. Yeah, Bush and Cheney aren't going to listen and there's no way to make them listen b/c they have a few months left in office and are not about to go back on the their war positions after defending them for the entirety of the administration.
The war is one of the very few huge issues in the election and no one running will be able to escape it. The issue is not going away and no one will forget about it between now and January.
Also, if anything inconveniencing Joe Schmo will just turn him against the anti-war sentiment. All the polls suggest that Joe is fairly against the war right now. Lets not piss him off and change his mind.
"Also, if anything inconveniencing Joe Schmo will just turn him against the anti-war sentiment. All the polls suggest that Joe is fairly against the war right now. Lets not piss him off and change his mind."
So let me see if I have this correct, west.
Joe Schmo is driving down 14th Street listening to WTOP tell him about more deaths in Iraq, or another lie from the Bush administration about how this war has made us more safe from terror, and he says to himself, "Man, I can't stand this pointless and ill-advised war. I can't wait to get that bum out of office and get our troops home."
Then he sees a blinding flash of red as a thousand brake lights go on in unison, and as he sits there in gridlock watching a 19 year old with dreadlocks and a 5-foot-tall marionette dance past his car, he says to himself, "Man, I can't stand these war protesters. Leave those troops to die in Iraq and while we're at it, can't we get four more years of Dubya?"
That's a pretty low opinion of Joe Schmo you've got there, west.
Joe Schmo sounds hot. What's he doing for kicks tonite?
politburo sez:
"So the hypothetical is, would public opinion be the same today if these groups had given up all protest on March 19, 2003?"
And the answer is [drum-roll]: *Yes*. They make as much impact on American (or global) public opinion as your average small Belgian avant-garde interpretive dance cooperative makes on global CO2 emissions.
There actually *is* a way that these guys could make a difference...get active in pre-general election Democratic politics. In other words, take over the party the way the religious right did the Republican party over the last two decades.
Instead they'll do their little guerrilla theatre, make some puppets, vote for Nader in the general election, and wonder why nothing ever changes.
Wheeee!
MONKEYROTICA : Oyi, mooie-mooie! I luv yous!
IBC : Are you brainless? You almost got us killed!
MONKEYROTICA : I spake.
IBC : The ability to speak does not make you intelligent. Now get outta
here!
MONKEYROTICA : No...no! Mesa stay...Mesa yous humble servaunt.
IBC : That wont be necessary.
MONKEYROTICA: Oh boot tis! Tis demunded byda gods. Tis a live debett, tis. Mesa
culled Monkeyrotica!
it's always good to feel like you're on acid when you're reading these threads...even if you've never touched the stuff...
What I do is volunteer as often as I can to assist wounded vets assimilate back into our world. This is my humble opinion, but I think my volunteer work is a MUCH better use of time than standing still in Union Station for a minute.
If we could just take a timeout from our bickering for a moment. I was speaking with an Air Force doctor the other day and I asked her what was the best way that civvies like me can lend a hand to our wounded vets.
It seems that wounded vets (especially amputees) get all the help they need when they first get back to the States and back home, but they are left with few resources when the initial fanfare dies down. The problem is especially acute for vets that have head injuries that leave them mentally or emotionally disabled. There aren't a lot of initiatives in place to address this gap, but getting more people aware of the problem is the first step in correcting it. Take this FWIW.
Best,
HR
"They make as much impact on American (or global) public opinion as your average small Belgian avant-garde interpretive dance cooperative makes on global CO2 emissions."
Well, I find your wholesale dismissal of the effectiveness of street protests to be just as lazy and devoid of nuance as your activist caricature. I for one think it's encouraging to see people acting out their beliefs in the public sphere. God help us if one day we wake up and the whole political dialogue consists of party representatives hurling ideological turds at one another across the wasteland of cable news. Oh, wait. That's pretty much what we have now, isn't it? Except for a few ignored activist events here and there. So whatever your opinion of street protests, I think it's safe to say that we've erred too far in the direction of the apathetic, the entrenched, and the predictable; and it's honestly refreshing to see that there is still such a thing as life outside the legislative process. Because if visible acquiescence on the part of the body politic is the only reason to protest, if that's your only definition of success, then the vast majority of protests all around the world are equally contemptible, simply because they are, for the most part, ignored, quashed, and forgotten.
"They make as much impact on American (or global) public opinion as your average small Belgian avant-garde interpretive dance cooperative makes on global CO2 emissions."
Well, I find your wholesale dismissal of the effectiveness of street protests to be just as lazy and devoid of nuance as your activist caricature.
It's not a caricature. It's for real, unfortunately, just minus the Belgians.