Over 650 cities around the world are holding rallies and marches today against the seemingly impending war. Dozens of cities across the US are seeing people come out in great numbers, putting a message across to the UN, the government and international community: that Americans don't want this war, at least not in our name.

The City of New York only allowed a permit for a rally; no marching. But as 100s of thousands of people take to the streets, it becomes impossible to contain them - nor their desire for peaceful solutions. Dozens of square blocks are packed with people and barricades were constantly coming down as the police are unable to confine them to the sidewalks as planned. Several arrests took place, but this was a peaceful rally by all means and NY has not seen this volume of people take to the streets in... well, forever!

Archbishop Desmond Tutu and singer Peter Seger are just a few of the many people who spoke at today's event. With the stage at 49th Street and 1st Avenue, a sea of faces and people stretch at least up to 59th street, freezing, the crowd chants "What do we want? Peace! When do we want it? Now!" Reports have the crowd being pushed all the way up to the 70s. And 1st Avenue was just one avenue; 2nd and 3rd Avenues served as overflows.

The police force cut off the side streets and easy access to the rally, in an effort to contain the swarms of people that keep coming and do crowd control. The rally started before noon, but streams of placcards made their way from all directions, large groups of people converging on 42nd street and Lexington, even. And streams of police vehicles and mounted horses, busses and riot control forces trying to reinforce the barricades.

What clearer message can there be? War is not the answer. And with millions of people all across the world coming out to join rallies today, what will it take? There are many options that dont resort to violence, but Conflict Resolution 101 says the first step is open communication. But we don't have that; instead confusing and mis-represented messages through the media and political maneuvering that includes everything but a dialogue. Here are some sites for more info, resources, strategies, etc. Make up your own mind about what you want to do, but do something. If everyone did a little, it would be a lot.

The People Speak Out Against War
www.moveon.org
www.unitedforpeace.org
www.internationalanswer.org

Pre-Emptive Democracy for Iraq
http://www.worldcitizen.org

Pictures of Rallies around the world (BBC)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/03/world_world_peace_protests/html/1.stm