I attended my first weird rally (my first normal, practical, rally was one for employment benefits for domestic partners), complete with cops, crazy banners, and, well, typical Austin fare. I actually only stopped by because I thought that the noise coming from the West Mall was unusually deafening. There are rallies around the tower all the time: religious demonstrations, Diwali (which I missed most of because I was busy failing a Calculus test), free food, fraternity/sorority booths, political parties. But mostly because of the batshit situation in Israel right now, this rally was primarily for Palestinian liberation. Ironically, it began as a support rally for Israel. That lasted all of about five minutes. I sat on the small wall around the tower, some five feet below everyone, and watched at first. Then I pulled out my sketchbook.

Now, as a commentary on the poor condition of this art and the reason that I don’t have a better copy, I was using Prismacolors, but I was unable to sharpen a lot of the pencils to a point at all. In fact, after a couple twists of my specially-purchased Prismacolor sharpener (I make it sound very special, but it was about $1 at the University Art Store. I shop on a budget), a lot of the pencil lead just fell out. My brown pencil is caving in on itself, and were it not for the fact that brown is the MOST useful color for drawing people, I wouldn’t care. At any rate, this is the spirit of the rally, captured by stupid pencils and my dollar store manila pad (which brings back so many memories. Memories of pretzels and pennies and Abraham Lincoln.). I scanned it once, for kicks, and then I took it to Houston and left it there. So here is my totally unrefined, unfinished, and messy rendition of lots of angry signs (I had to draw fast and I didn’t want to start drawing people and then mess up):

Click to see the image in all its grainy, full-sized glory.

I expected intensity, especially from an educated, concerned crowd, and I approve of intensity. But parts of the rally just got out of hand. I was on the “balcony” area, and the cops ran up there and just watched the crowd for an hour or so after it looked as though a fight was about to start in the middle of the rally. I was surprised to see a huge mix of people and signs, ranging from the moderate and perfectly reasonable (“Gaza’s children are innocent”; “Stop Apartheid, Free Gaza!”) to signs that were outright bad, like the one with the Star Of David blotted out by a swastika, or the chants of “Intifada, Intifada!” As far as the political situation goes, it really does play out like a game of dominos. One attack begets another. I believe that Israel and Palestine should be two separate states, that Zionism is a faulty idea, and that native Arabs and Jews and immigrants to the country should find some way to coexist without this needless, senseless, violence. Israel, certainly, shouldn’t retaliate in a manner that destroys so many lives ‚ one would think that a state that has had such finesse in previous wars would be able to retaliate without killing thousands. And the fact that terrorism is a battle tactic of the weak and spread-thin does not help Palestine. “Bastion of democracy” or not, I was extremely saddened that this war, interrupted by the smallest, flimsiest cease-fires, has not ended yet. The fault is, inherently, with both nations, and for it so many innocents suffer along with the perpetrators. War is not the way to settle a boundary dispute or a racial issue. The first is a matter for diplomacy. The latter is a matter of tolerance. And no region needs it more.