Although there were continual protests the week before and the week after, this demonstration was the single largest event staged around the Republican National Convention held in New York City. It had not been my orginal intention to attend the rallies in NYC as my focus in the past had been solely on our "preemptive" actions in the Middle East. But I changed course and joined in for the Sunday march in order to be counted among those who oppose our Administration's current actions abroad and to capture the "moment" in photographs (always a rich source of material).

The march organized at Seventh Avenue and 23rd Steet, with people filing in from the south along Seventh Avenue and from the east and west from multiple side streets. The march proceeded up Seventh Avenue past Madison Square Garden (site of the Republican National Convention), across 34th Street, down Fifth Avenue, onto Broadway and ending at Union Square. The park was closed at Union Sqare and no permit was given to rally before or after the march, although impromptu rallies did occur.

As is usually the case, reports on the numbers of protesters varied widely. But, even conservative estimates put the attendance for this single event at well over 250,000. As was true of the Iraq War protests, protestors were repesented by a diverse lot of both young and old, black and white, religious and non-religious, etc. As expected, there was a strong presence of NYC police. But I was surprised to see how toned down they were compared to the New York City protests in February 2003. In some cases the police were downright congenial and this certainly helped to take the edge off and allow for a very productive and satisfying day.