Hey Obama Listen to Me, Bradley Manning must be set free.

The bus that Lisa and I were on was the last bus to leave Union Station, so we were the last people to get there, and everyone was incredibly anxious to get off the bus. 

Daniel Ellsberg was here, and so was Ann Wright, and I recognized a bunch of other people from the protest the day before, and some people from the convention this summer.   

At the beginning there were people pacing up and down the road with signs getting people’s attention.

When I got there, I learned just how intense Code Pink is about their protesting, and their costumes.  They were putting people into Prison Costumes, and Guantanamo costumes, and then it seemed like we took pictures forever, but in reality, I’m sure it was only about 15 or 20 minutes.  They also had tons of props, they were handing out signs, pink whistles, and they even had a “prison” for us to stand behind during the march, and for some of the pictures.  

Eventually Lisa stripped down to her “Bradley Manning” suit which consisted of pale pink leggings and shirt, and a pair of white undies. 

Someone walked by, and then left, and one of the code pink ladies said “This is important you need to stay here and learn”

Someone yelled traitor, and someone yelled “I would do this for you”

There were so many people taking drive by photos.

There was a camera man and a reporter standing by the road asking people what they thought about Bradley Manning, then someone drove by and told us off, and the two camera men yelled “let’s go ask him” and then took off.  

Two men told me I wasn’t Bradley Manning because I was wearing clothes.  Suggested that we get a bunch of people in their underwear with the “I am Bradley Manning” signs. 

There were two men in Guantanamo suits sitting on the side of the road with their heads covered

The protest started off very casual, and stayed so for the first couple of hours, and then it got intense once the march began.

People went through the barriers after Vets weren’t allowed to put flowers on the Iwo Jima memorial. People were yelling and moving, and it was super intense.

Ann Wright and Daniel Ellsberg were the people who really started the sit in.  They were under a whistle blower torture zone sign that they ended up sitting under.  From what I understand, at first we were told that we would all be able to place a flower on the Iwo Jima memorial, and then it was knocked down to a delegation of five, and then they were told they could just toss the flowers over the fence.  So they placed them down, and then sat down in the middle of the road. 

There was one point in time where the protesters and the riot police met in the middle of the street, and the swat guys started pushing them back, with what seemed to me, unnecessary force.

There were at least 50 to 60 cops, about half of them had riot shields, some were mounted, some were completely covered and had big guns, and then there were some other ones.  Also, there were some “undercover”

People were putting Courage to Resist stickers on the riot shields. One cop got mad, and kind moved his shield when someone tried to put hers on there, and almost hit her in the face.

There were two undercover cops who were completely obvious  

The song that most people were singing was “We Shall Not be Moved”

Some of the major chants, that were lead by a marine who I’m guessing was about 5 years older than me, were

“Hey Obama listen to me, Bradley Manning must be free”

“Hey Obama listen to me, Torturing Bradley is not ok”

“Show me what a police state looks like”

“Show me what a democracy looks like”

“whose streets? Our streets!”

It seemed like there was quite a bit of press there for the entire thing.  Although I am sure that most of it was alternative press, but I did end up on CNN

I also think someone was live-streaming with their computer, they had it open with a webcam, which made me concerned for their computer because there was a great deal of movement going on for

For me the protest was extremely emotional, knowing that he was there.  Lisa and I thought that the people in charge of Quantico figured out just how close people had to be for Bradley to hear us, and then wouldn’t let us beyond that point.  Lisa and I had to leave around 4 to go back into the city, and I did not want to leave everyone, but I was comforted by the fact there were several civil disobedience “vets” there that knew what to do. 

It seemed as though for the last hour or so of the protest, the whistles that we had were being blown constantly, and I remember getting back on the bus with a major headache, and just feeling completely overwhelmed by what I had experienced. 

Later that evening, when I went to upload all of my pictures of the day, when facebook took me to the page where it gives you the option to tag your friends, all of the pictures that facebook wanted me to tag where of his face, which I felt was interesting, and hilarious.