It was wierd, the way the people running it were acting. Anyway, when the crowd of candleholders peaked at around 40-ish, they had us sort of march around in a circle. There were some media there, and they were taking pictures. Getting right up in my face with bright flashes, like old-fashioned cameras.
Well, we were marching around in our little circle, and they started us chanting, switching up the chant every few minutes. On about the third chant or so, the pulled a major switcheroo!
They went from something like "Russians go home!" to "Soviets out of Poland! U.S. out of El Salvador!" and I was like "Wha?!?!" So, I shouted something like "lets take it one issue at a time, fellas!" and sat on a little wall nearby, waiting for them to drop that one. They kept it up, and got even more anti-US, and some spokesperson was giving an interview to make it seem like we were a group that was all about that. We had ALL come down for a candlelight vigil for the Poles. Only the 4-5 organizers had the other agenda.
I put out my candle, disgusted. I felt very manipulated, but it was a good lesson, in that I have never been impressed by any media reportage of protests and marches since then, even before I began to become politically "aware."