I just got back from the city after attending the anti-war rally. It was a truly profound experience to see so many people there. It makes you understand that people do actually care. CNN.com claims 200,000 came while the city claims it was only 100,000. According to an email sent to the volunteers list by the organizers, 500,000 people attended. No matter what the true number, it is just amazing.

In London there are claims between 750,000 (police) to 2 million (organizers). In Barcelona they claim 1.3 million and there were about 150,000 in Melbourne yesterday.

The speakers in New York were engaging, thoughtful and passionate. The crowd was caring, interested and responsive. It was truly astounding. The only problem was the way the cops dealt with crowd control. They had denied a march permit because they feared it would be difficult to control. Instead, we were forced to march because the cops would not let us cross at any of the side streets. As a result of this, they clogged up the city worse than they would have liked and people were being mistreaded. According to the email from the organizers, 320 people were arrested at the event. But, thankfully, this did not put a damper on the day.

Later tonight I'll be posting all of the photos I took at the rally. In the meantime, I'm going to lay down and rest.

Update: I finished the photos. View them here (or here for RSS readers, those with bad pop-up blockers or folks who like full control over their windows).