A great day - a great cause!

 

Okay so maybe we didn't have 50,000...But it was a very large human peace sign. Where I was on the ground I just couldn't tell - but now - great!

The Associated Press estimates that the crowd was 40,000. The great thing was that the entire world was represented. I just wish some of those tourists on 5th Avenue would have stopped shopping for a while and lent their voice to the rally, and increased the numbers. I think Caldicott said it best:

Longtime disarmament advocate Dr. Helen Caldicott said Russia and the United States are the real "rogue nations" and have enough weapons to destroy humankind.
"Let's for God's sake talk about the real moral issues of our time," she said. "Not stem cell research, gay marriage or abortion. Let's talk about whether or not the whole of the world survives, life on the planet survives."

I think for me the highlight of the whole day was to look up and see Pale Male circling the crowd. For those who don't know, Pale Male is a red-tailed hawk nesting on the 12th floor ledge of a condo on 5th Avenue. He was circling the crowd almost as if to lend his support. I think it was so appropriate that as we were talking about world-ending weapons, one of nature's creatures was flying majestically and effortlessly overhead. A flight, IMHO, of support and a flight asking the world to save Mother Earth every way we can.