A
global, grassroots movement to address climate change and environmental degradation held marches in over 190 locations on Saturday, and the San Francisco edition had a remarkable 1960s look and feel to it.
Tens of thousands of people gathered at the Embarcadero for the 11AM march up Market Street to Civic Center.
Rather like the annual Gay Pride march, the event was divided into contingents, and you were welcome to march with any group you felt like joining, including queers...
...vegetarians...
...mothers and grandmothers...
...indigenous groups...
...peaceniks...
...and RuPaul's Drag Race fans.
We were going to march with the gay contingent...
...but the march monitors at the front were going impossibly slow...
...so we walked ahead and joined the Guardians of the Forest...
...and Spanish language revolutionaries...
...and Filipinos...
...marching in solidarity with Native Americans...
...some of whom were dancing in the streets.
By noon, the march had only proceeded about six short blocks up Market to the intersection with Third Street, and I confronted a middle-aged man who was one of the monitors at the front. "Why is this going so damned slow?" I asked him, and he replied that he had decided the march needed to proceed at a stately pace. "There are tens of thousands of people behind you who are still waiting to march. Pick up the pace, you fool, or everyone's going to peel off elsewhere." To my surprise, they seemed to do just that.
More to come from the rally at the Civic Center (and no, the gentleman pictured above is not the silly march monitor).
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