I was in Washington this past Thursday for a meeting, and bad weather up over the Allegheny Mountains prevented me from getting home that night. I stayed on until Friday morning, and was tempted to remain through today to march, but I had been on the road most of the week and missed my family.
So I am unable to be in Washington today, but like some of you I was there on January 18, 2003 on another bitter cold day. I remember getting there early on an overnight bus from Providence, and seeking refuge from the cold at the train station. I remember leading a call and response at the top of my lungs, "THIS IS WHAT DEMOCRACY SOUNDS LIKE" just as we marchers passed the Capitol Building. I remember searching in the fading winter light for over an hour for my bus that took me back to Providence.
On Thursday I went back and looked at some photos from that march, back before hundreds of thousands of lives were so tragically lost. I cried and cried.