Things I missed

- This past week, February 10-16, was the 11th annual Freedom to Marry Week, with over 100 events in 24 states and the District of Columbia. I suppose it wasn't as big a deal here for the obvious reasons, and maybe that's why I missed it, but as Eugene Debs said,

while there is a soul in prison, I am not free.

Or, as I understand one implication of that, rights denied anywhere are rights denied everywhere. As I've said elsewhere, it must be justice for all or it's not justice at all, but mere favoritism.

- If it hadn't been for James at The Mahatma X Files, I would have missed this one as well: Friday was the fifth anniversary of "arguably the largest protests in global history," all directed against the looming US invasion of Iraq. Tens of millions turned out. Over 800 cities represented. All seven continents (yes, including Antarctica, where scientists at McMurdo held a rally) and Oceania.

To no avail, it seemed, as the invasion proceeded as planned. But it might not have been as ineffective as we often think: It is likely, in fact, that the size of the protests limited or even prevented contributions to our imperialist effort by at least other nations.

So if you want to take a look back, Democracy Now! has an archive of its show about the demos, Wikipedia has an overview of the day's protests, and YouTube has videos from Seattle and New York and London and probably other places.