Chapter 11: They marched ... they slept

Amy was made for a peace protest.\nOne day after the bombs started falling over Baghdad, Amy happened upon a large group marching against the war in downtown New Orleans -- her dream incarnate.\nShe, Stacey and Jamie had all explored New Orleans, ate lunch and shopped before the boys even got up on one of the last days of our final spring break. While those three picked up peace signs and joined a crowd of hundreds, the boys rifled through phone books, looking for a pizza place close by.\nPizza versus peace. You could call it the gender split of our spring break. The girls, and to an extent Dave, felt that New Orleans was a city to be discovered and that sleeping in a hotel could be saved for any occasion. The boys were sick of traveling in groups of eight everywhere like a family making up for lost time on a vacation.\n"We're so worried about stepping on each other's toes, that we can never get anything accomplished," Toby said before settling on Dominos.\nThe girls tried to push. They wanted everyone to make a late night stop at Café Du Monde, a New Orleans institution that serves powdered beignets, a type of doughnut. But the men finally resisted.\n"You know, we don't have to do everything together," said Jarrett, who earlier got out of a group activity by saying the sun makes him depressed. So while Jamie, Amy, Stacey and I crossed St. Charles Street, New Orleans' main strip, the boys stayed behind on the opposite corner.\n"Why aren't they coming?" Stacey asked.\nThey didn't want to.\n"Well why are they going to waste their time in New Orleans sitting in a hotel?" \nBecause that's who they are.\nSo while the women marched for peace, something they all called "amazing," the men held a protest of their own for individuality.\nThey sat in their downtown hotel room, ate Domino's pizza and watched basketball. When that was over, they went to an IMAX movie about Lewis and Clark and then took a nap.\nThey missed out on the chance to voice opposition to the war, discover the city and try Creole cuisine. They settled on things you can get anywhere.\nBut they were happy just the same.\nRead Chapter 12: Silenced, Friday