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Theater of Battle With A Familiar Script

From left, Ryan Foshee, Keith Clark and Michael Rigby recall the 1960s hippies who protested the Vietnam War.
From left, Ryan Foshee, Keith Clark and Michael Rigby recall the 1960s hippies who protested the Vietnam War. (By Marvin Joseph -- The Washington Post)
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The most lasting image from the 1967 march wasn't the violence, or the crowds, but a tight shot of a mop-top blond demonstrator in a turtleneck sweater slipping carnations into the barrels of the rifles held by MPs guarding the Pentagon. It summed up an era.

What image will speak of today to future generations? It is too early to say if this march will be remembered at all.

But some idea of the new generation can be gleaned from a confrontational tableau near the conclusion of the day's action.

The loud recorded funk cry of "War, hunh!, what is it good for?" greets the marchers as the reach the Pentagon. Most of the marchers proceed to the Pentagon's north parking lot where they are permitted to be. But about 150 or 200 members of the Black Bloc rush up a side road that is blocked by police.

The front rank of young protesters carries construction barrels that have been cut and fashioned into shields with handles bolted on the inside. The outsides have been painted with slogans like, "Class War Not Gas War."

Forty years ago, a similar group rushed police wearing motorcycle helmets and shoulder pads. Some were beaten and arrested.

This time, a firecracker of some kind, apparently tossed by a protester, explodes in the air above the police. The protesters squat behind their shields, a few feet from the police clad in their own shields and body armor.

"We kid you not," says an officer in command, ordering the protesters to disperse. "Chemical munitions will be used."

After a few of their number are grabbed and taken away by police, the young protesters decide to hold a vote. "The two options are," says one addressing the group, wearing yellow hat and green bandanna, "Do we stay or should we leave?"

A majority votes to withdraw. "Is everyone cool with that?" asks Green Bandanna.

Yes. So unlike yesteryear, there will be no bloody heads, mass arrests or chemical munitions for the radicals of 2007.

What, then, was the point of this coda to the main, permitted march on the Pentagon.


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