Vigil for Brad

About a hundred of us gathered tonight in front of the Mexican Consulate to honor the memory of Brad Will, who was killed in Oaxaca on Thursday along with striking schoolteacher Emilio Alfonso Fabián and Oaxaca resident Esteban Zurrita. The mood was somber, of course, and the atmosphere was strikingly subdued; everyone was too shocked, I think, for anger.

I saw so many people I haven't seen in ages, and I don't think I was the only one who found it to be a poignant reunion. Folks from the many activist battles of the Lower East Side, from the late-1990s fight to save community gardens, from the global justice movement's Seattle/A16/FTAA heyday -- many of us hadn't been all in the same place since the World Economic Forum protests in 2002, or maybe the Republican National Convention protests in 2004.

I kept expecting Brad to come zipping up the block on some rickety bike, or loping into the crowd with that loose-limbed gait of his. It was, after all, the sort of event he would have attended, if he hadn't been murdered.

More actions are planned in coming days, including a protest at the Consulate on Monday morning. I have the kids that day, so I'm not sure if I'll be attending ... not out of worries about the demo, although I believe there will probably be some arrests, but because the action begins at 9:00, which is usually the earliest I can drag my zumbly little girl out of bed.