Party on the Cambridge Common

And by party, I mean celebrating the 230th anniversary of the US Army. Hooray! Apparently it was started right on the Cambridge Common, with George Washington and all, or something like that.

So, the army decided it would be cool to have a celebration, with some sleek equipment, four parachutists dropping in, some veterans, and a talk by some high-up army guy, and the mayor. And a big truck that said "be all you can be" or whatever. If that sounded like something of a recruiting event in disguise, you're exactly right. In fact, the army is doing various events all across the country showing off equipment.

And so, in the middle of the day on a weekday last week, there was a groovy demo. There were 200+ people there in protest (don't people have to be at work?). Who was the first person I ran into? None other than Marcia Morris. She moved up to these parts and still works for AFSC.

Some people got inside the fence, to the event, but then at some point before we got there they stopped letting people in who were clearly there in protest. This was in a public park, of course..

At the beginning some of the protestors stood right by the stage, and then were arrested when they refused to move. Later, more were arrested (making a total of 7) when they jumped the fence to get in to the event.

Some photos are here. (and scroll all the way to the bottom, there are more).

Now there's all this debate here in Cambridge about the planning of the event; most notably, people are criticizing the mayor for organizing the event without consulting the rest of the city council.

Meanwhile, the army keeps missing recruiting goals.