I went to last weekend's anti-war rally in Washington and forgot to bring my "Finnish-Americans against the War" sign, which, in retrospect, is fine because I'd have looked a bit foolish promoting my Scandanavian heritage and shivering at the same time.

I did remember to layer my clothes, though, which didn't help all that much anyway. Which is to say that D.C. was frigid and I shook at least as violently as the PA system did whenever the backpacked ANSWER organizer shrieked into the microphone. Which is to say I shook.

Shook like the wagging fingers of the shrillest of the rally's speakers - the Free Palestine bloc, the Bush-is-a-liar coalition - who used their turns at the podium to pepper their cries to stop the war with their personal and sometimes venomous rhetoric.

Thank goodness for Jesse Jackson's and U.S. Rep. John Conyers' (D-Detroit) humble speeches. At least the rally's biggest names figured out that this was an anti-war rally aimed at stopping the war - not alienating the movement. I'm sure Bush is a liar and I'd love to see Palestine a state, but I have my doubts that those sentiments resonate with or are even believable to a good portion of the people we are trying to convince to join our movement. So, I spent much of the first few hours at the rally craning my neck, trying to read other demonstrators' eyes - Are these people being turned off by some of these speeches? Are they going to walk away disgusted?

Remarkably, it seems no one did. I saw nary a spirit dampened nor an optimistic face trampled. On the contrary, when the rally ended and the march started, I saw nothing but envigorated people.

In fact, as the rally ended, and after the ANSWER people childishly blamed the "cops" for the demonstration's not being allowed a PA system at the march's Naval Yard endpoint, we - all 200,000-plus of us - began what became one of my life's most inspiring afternoons.

The march was everything the rally wasn't. No one dominated the dialogue, only a handful of people got angry, demonstrators exchanged ideas and contact information, drumlines drummed, we all chanted and laughed and sang, "War, what is it good for?" Puppeteers puppeted, stilt-walking Uncle Sams careened through elaborately decorated placards and religious groups sang hymns.

And the best part? I was surrounded by nuns, strollers, punks, fathers, yuppies, septegenarians, students, the middle aged. This wasn't a collection of young fringe radicals and their washed-up predecessors from a few generations ago. It was an ageless, colorful coalition willing to spend all day in subfreezing temperatures to protest an unjust war. The kind of gathering that makes a very persuasive argument for the existence of a broad-based anti-war movement in this country. And the kind of civilized mob that the Bush administration must take very seriously.

There can be little doubt now that that the anti-war movement is to be reckoned with. The D.C. rally garnered most of the media's attention, but there were demonstrations across the country, including one in San Francisco that drew another estimated 200,000 demonstrators. It is likely that these rallies will only draw more people in the future, that the movement will only become more vocal and more visible.

Much of the debate surrounding a war in Iraq centers on whether or not the United Nations will back an invasion. But if the Bush administration cannot manage a clear mandate from the American people, a thumbs up from the U.N. becomes a moot endorsement. By no stretch of the imagination have we accomplished this, but we are well on our way to making just that case.

Getting out to D.C. required very little of me. I hopped a ride in a friend's van, never had to take a turn driving and stayed with an ex-Ann Arborite turned D.C. tour guide. I spent about as much money on the trip as I would have had I stayed home for the weekend and was able to sleep in on Sunday before returning home in the wee hours of Monday morning. Because I am a student, I was able to do these things. But most people can't afford to head to D.C. or San Francisco on a whim. Most people can't act on their wanderlust.

Which is why the number of demonstrators that filled the central streets of cities across the country last weekend is so impressive. Which is why, when I stood in the late afternoon frozen footed and shoulder to shoulder with two middle-aged Virginia housewives laughing at clever placards , I shook like the PA system and the wagging fingers - I'd found the demonstration I'd wanted to find.

John Honkala can be reached at jhonkala@umich.edu.