The theme (brought to us by a strange construction sign is) "don't worry, be happy!"

Pro-Peace Protests

My friday was highlighted by pro-peace protests. First, let me say that I support both sides of the argument. Arguing, I hate to say it that way, is very American. So both Pro-War and Pro-Peace have their places. However, I don't think people should be killed and this war is killing people which sucks in my opinion. So anyway, this Friday was a "walk out" on campus. People gathered in red square at noon instead of going to their classes. (Heres just an example picture of red square, not on the same day, to give you an idea of location.) I ran into Suzuki Sensei in all the people, and we talked a little bit and listened to the speakers. The first announcement was that someone had called the police and threatoned to kill two protesters (one male, one female) if they left campus. That was kinda freaky. So the speaker told us not to be scared, and that police would walk around the edges of all the people watching for anything that could give them clues about someone who would be planning to shoot others. When the speakers were over, they called on all of us (and there was a lot of us!) to march downtown. I had to go to the bank downtown anyway (^^;) so I decided to go along, because peace is an important message. Right before I turned around to follow the marchers I ran into Eina. She didn't want to march, but she walked a little bit and then went to lunch. As I marched with all the people I mingled in and listened to the conversations, and different chants. (Some of the better chants: "Drop bush, not bombs." and "1,2,3, oh ya, bush is bad, 4,5,6, he's ugly oh ya oh ya" and "what do we want---peace, when do we want it---now") Sometimes I would just let the river of people flow past me... (I like that picture in the last link a lot, you can see the people move past me, the sign words and the faces and almost the thoughts of the different people.) A lot of the people in the croud were people you might be able to label as "hippies" or "extreamists" but I was happy to see a lot of the people appeared to be your "normal" student. Everyone of course is equal, so who the croud was dosen't matter... but on campus a lot of people have been callnig "pro-peace" people "Stupid Hippies" ... (this is a bigger picture from inside the people, I like how you can see "LOV" on the right and an American flag on the left.) So, basically everyone marched towards downtown with people watching us from the side roads and appartment buildings. Some people glared with mean expressions on their faces, but most people smiled or waved. In the front of the mass of people about 10 drummers were hammering on their drums, making it seem ironically like soldiers marching to war. When we all got downtown, they sounded an air raid siren and we all layed down in the middle of the road and were silent for the dead in Iraq (well, mostly quiet except the 5 pro-war people on the corner sometimes shouting "liberate iraq!").. I laid their in the sunny almost summer air, the road pressed against my back. It was a really surreal experience. Laying in the middle of a once busy road with hundreds (thousands?) of other people. One of the really cool things about going downtown, was that they welcomed speakers to come up and talk. Some of the speakers honestly sucked, dry, repeated, uninspired words. But some of the speakers were really insperational. One of the speakers that stood out for me was my friend Tyrone who had a really deep things to say about how we must make sure that that making Iraq democratic didn't mean controlling iraq, and etc. He got some of the loudest chears. Also, the organizers allowed a pro-war sargent to speak his opinions and everyone was respectful of that... I thought that was really cool. America is all about diversity of opinions.

Emily's 21st

Emily had her birthday party also this weekend. My camera was full so I couldn't take any pictures, but it was really fun. Shinji (from my CS class last quarter) gave me a ride in his car, and we got there kinda early. But eventually a lot of people showed up (many from CSA) and after awhile (around 1 in the morning) a lot of us decided to go out to a resturant. After that we watched a movie (The Others.. creepy, I screamed) on campus. It was fun, happy birthdays to Emily.

other things...

tonight (saturday?), me, Bryant and Polly watched the French movie Amelie...silly movie!! ^^; (those two pictures of them are from the time that they and priscilla and King Yao (dont have a clear picture of just him, but he's far right in the next picture) played uno and other card games with me last week!) I'm looking forward to my radio show tomorrow (sundays, 3 to 5pm, 89.3FM!) I think I'll play silly songs. peace..~ TEMAN SAYA, SAMPAI JUMPA! (this entry says it was posted at 7 something, but thats just when I first started on it... its really 11 now.)