At the risk of sounding like an antisocial spoilsport, I think I should disclose that I find demonstrations like this boring.

Googling demonstrators, however, is more interesting, not necessarily because it reveals hidden agendas or big media lies, but because what's omitted is often more interesting than what's there. The WaPo article features an almost touching description which appears to depict political naifs from flyover country who'd traveled all the way to the Nation's Capital in a manner reminiscent of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. From the WaPo piece:

In the crowd: young activists, nuns whose anti-war activism dates to Vietnam, parents mourning their children in uniform lost in Iraq, and uncountable families motivated for the first time to protest.

Connie McCroskey, 58, came from Des Moines, Iowa, with two of her daughters, both in their 20s, for the family's first demonstration. McCroskey, whose father fought in World War II, said she never would have dared protest during the Vietnam War.

"Today, I had some courage," she said.

It took very little courage to perform the despicable act of Googling the family. And no; I did not discover a family with a long history of antiwar activism. What I did discover was that in addition to the mother (Connie), there's a daughter named Erika, who has traveled to Bolivia as a WorldService Corps volunteer, and whose mother Connie is involved with the same church. This Community in Christ church expressed antiwar statements in 2003, and its website features these antiwar statements from other religious leaders.

Not that there's anything wrong with church activism, world service in Bolivia, or anything like that. But the article makes the family appear less sophisticated than they turn out to be.

And for reasons that escape me, I could find more Google news stories about the daughter than the mother, but not one story including the two.

From ABC, here's a typical entry about daughter Erika McCroskey:

President Bush himself was out of town, monitoring hurricane recovery efforts from Colorado and Texas. The protesters shouted for his impeachment.

"We have to get involved," said Erika McCroskey, 27, who came from Des Moines, Iowa, with her younger sister and mother for her first demonstration, traveling in just one of the buses that poured into the capital from far-flung places.

"Bush Lied, Thousands Died," said one sign. "End the Occupation," said another.

I was joined at Air Force One by Erika McCroskey today. She's from right here in the Des Moines area. Erika, stand up for me. Erika is an AmeriCorps volunteer. She decided she is going to do something with her life by helping others. I was reading that -- and Erika, she's going to Bolivia to help somebody in need there. I said, Erika, why are you going? She said, my mother raised me in the spirit of service.

You see, the great strength of America are the Erikas. I call them soldiers in the armies of compassion, people that don't need a government law to tell them to love a neighbor just like they'd like to be loved themselves, people who have heard a call that's much bigger than government.

In the interests of full disclosure, I should point out that I'm writing this because I feel guilty about not driving all the way down to today's counter demonstration.

Would the Post let me say I was motivated for the first time to counter-protest?

MORE: Lest anyone think I am being corrupted by generosity, I thought I should point out that I am not going out of my way to avoid criticizing the Philadelphia Inquirer for misleading coverage. As it happens, there's not a word about any of the McCroskeys in today's report about the protest.

(Far be it from me to read something into nothing.)

AFTERTHOUGHT: Oh hell, here's an irresistible protest nugget from today's Inquirer:

One speaker, Curtis Muhammad, director of Community Labor Union of New Orleans, equated the war with the treatment of poor African Americans in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina hit there.

"If you're against the war, you must be against the war against blacks," he said.

Does it mean Katrina was like Saddam Hussein and we should have built up international support before going in?

UPDATE: As commenter Matt Rustler points out below, he researched the McCroskeys yesterday, and left the results in a comment at Jeff Goldstein's Protein Wisdom -- to a post I read! Wish I'd known, as it would have saved me the trouble.... but there's no way to catch everything.

I also see that another blogger did the same research.

(I should stick to posts about alligators and copperheads, lest I become redundant.)

Or leave no Google un-Technorati-ed!

Yuck.