Reflections on the Nuke Freeze March

It was a parade, not a march: more itinerant theme park than street protest. They wanted, above anything else, to entertain each other. Posters had shopclass-careful lettering. Slogan language was either too-literate (the hague not the haig) or Banlon mawkish (arms are for embracing) and all about as spontaneous as an induced birth. Yet resolutely cheerful I must say. The whole moral regatta looked like a firstrate Parents’ Day project at Central Carport Junior High.

But, yes, it was diverse. Marxist-Leninists in front of an East Village Weight Watchers contingent, behind six hundred Japanese. One 12-year-old girl holding please let me grow up over her head. The entire, it would seem, state of Vermont. Grey Panthers, Benedictines, Filipinos, and Scientists for Peace. Everyone staring at everyone else: congratulations to us, we’re a media event. And more parasites than the average tropical stomach has: this march, after all, was prime commercial space. Anti-Khomeini people, pro-Haitian-immigration people. Several Prentice-Hall editors on strike. My best-ofbreed is the oh-so-drunk Beer For Peace Movement, don’t bomb us, we’re ALREADY BOMBED.

DK

About the Author

D. Keith Mano

D. Keith Mano was a TV screenwriter and author of ten books, including Take 5, recipient of the 1987 Literary Lion award, and columnist at National Review magazine for 17 years.

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It was a parade, not a march: more itinerant theme park than street protest. They wanted, above anything else, to entertain each other. Posters had shopclass-careful lettering. Slogan language was either too-literate (the hague not the haig) or Banlon mawkish (arms are for embracing) and all about as spontaneous as an induced birth. Yet resolutely cheerful I must say. The whole moral regatta looked like a firstrate Parents’ Day project at Central Carport Junior High.

But, yes, it was diverse. Marxist-Leninists in front of an East Village Weight Watchers contingent, behind six hundred Japanese. One 12-year-old girl holding please let me grow up over her head. The entire, it would seem, state of Vermont. Grey Panthers, Benedictines, Filipinos, and Scientists for Peace. Everyone staring at everyone else: congratulations to us, we’re a media event. And more parasites than the average tropical stomach has: this march, after all, was prime commercial space. Anti-Khomeini people, pro-Haitian-immigration people. Several Prentice-Hall editors on strike. My best-ofbreed is the oh-so-drunk Beer For Peace Movement, don’t bomb us, we’re ALREADY BOMBED.

DK

About the Author

D. Keith Mano

D. Keith Mano was a TV screenwriter and author of ten books, including Take 5, recipient of the 1987 Literary Lion award, and columnist at National Review magazine for 17 years.