The Pocket Veto

THE POCKET VETO | Paul Snyder
March 12, 2007 8:30 PM

I work in Soho and this morning was called to the window by a lot of hooting and hollering from the street. By no means was this a rally like the last big one down Broadway, the Immigration protests in April 2006. That I could tell just by the sound. When I looked out the window and it wasn’t clear where the sound was coming from, it crossed my mind it might be a car stereo.

But it was a chant. Mostly female voices, cutting through the city noise, anyway. Unintelligible but a chant. Every four or five times it repeated they’d cheer. What I heard was in the realm of what you’d hear if someone were doing a keg stand outside at 11am.

The protest came around the corner. Not the corner of Broadway, but inconspicuous, cobblestoned Greene Street. There were maybe 25 people, with a few banners reading “NO WAR”. This was the only way to tell what was going on. Otherwise, they wore backpacks and messenger bags; about half looked like they might have joined up on the way to their jobs. In this way they did stand out from the models and tourists milling in the warm weather.

It’s pathetic. But these people are great.

Like the protestors still gathering regularly in Union Square, they haven’t got a chance at getting any publicity. So who are they talking to? The Commander in Chief couldn’t make it clearer that he isn’t interested in protests or even poll numbers. Maybe the Presidential candidates are listening. Or maybe they know the odds and they’re just hoping against hope, so to speak, not to accidentally reference Barack. No, these are the eventual Kucinich supporters, like him, doing it for moral reasons.

It was easily the smallest of the protests I’ve seen in this city, and I took it a symbol. The rest of the crowds have already broken up, chosen up sides, and are spending their energy on their early candidate. Factionalism and bickering from the left, from here on out. That’s why it’s encouraging to hear a noise in the street, because in spite of the size or the timbre of the hollering, a banner reading “NO WAR” is a lot more meaningful and specific than a banner with “HILLARY” or “OBAMA” on it.

The protest also may have been background for The Sopranos, the last episode of which was shooting on the next block. If so, everything I just said, doubled.