I woke up at 7:30 this morning, planning to make it to the 8:00 minyan at the Yale Hillel. I walked bleary-eyed into the bathroom, and suddenly became aware of music, wafting in through the open window. I thought that someone on an upper floor was listening to opera (at 7:30 in the morning?) but this music had more of a military sound to it.
I got dressed, took my book bag, wallet and keys, and stepped out of Bingham hall onto the Old Campus. As I walked out through Phelps Gate onto College Street, I saw something that made my jaw drop.
Dozens, hundreds, of red communist flags, thousands of people on the corner of the New Haven Green, loudspeakers blaring away with Chinese communist music (and other loudspeakers blaring away in Chinese). I stopped and stared.
The signs they carried: