Yesterday, I went to San Francisco and caught a glimpse of the antiwar protests that were going on there. Just to remind you, it is now the third anniversary of the beginning of the war in Iraq. The protest took place along Powell street, and I took these at the intersection of Powell and Market. These are from my Motorola camera phone, but the quality is pretty decent:

Overall it was a very peaceful rally, if not smaller than I would've expected. Nevertheless, there were a couple thousand people there by my naïve estimation. I noted just a few things:

• It was fun. It seemed like such a party to be caught in the middle of it. It felt like everybody there was "breaking the rules" and getting away with it. It was sort of intoxicating, so I could imagine why these things would be fun to attend;
• I was very disappointed in the protestors that had inverted American flags. I don't think this is a good way to operate, if you expect your fellow countryman to join your ranks. It would serve the protestors well by refraining from displaying anti-American sentiments, although it could be that the protestors and I fundamentally disagree on a couple things;
• The pro-war rallyers (last photo) looked like nerdy, ignorant party poopers in relation to the antiwar crowd. At least one had a UC Berkeley College Republican shirt on, and their group displayed scary signs like "Drop bombs, not acid." They need to find themselves a new PR person, one who understands why people go to protests in the first place. Although it's probably true that conservatives, by nature, don't get protests like liberals do.

The police brigade that followed the protestors did seem a little intense, but I guess the city does have to maintain the safety of its citizens and visitors...