MONDAY, MARCH 7 , 2022. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ M2 B3
THE DISTRICTDemonstrators
r ally for UkraineAbout 400 people draped in
blue-and-yellow flags and carrying
protest signs demonstrated in
front of the White House on
Sunday afternoon as speakers,
including U.S. diplomats and
lawmakers, called for support for
Ukraine.
“We need more armed forces,
not just from the U.S. but from
other countries, because they’re
going to take over other nations,”
said Beatriz Nehrebeckyj, 74, of
Ellicott City, whose parents left
Ukraine at the onset of World War
II. “ Putin won’t stop at us,” she
said, her voice shaking. “He won’t,
he won’t.”
Andriy Kulynin, 55, had
traditional Ukrainian attire a nd a
wooden copy of the mace that is a
symbol of the Ukrainian
president. The owner of an HVAC
company in Philadelphia, he said
he speaks daily to his cousins in
Ukraine.
“ They [are] scared, but they
stay,” he said. “Nobody going to
give up, even old people, even old
ladies. They will stay, they will
fight for their country.”
Dmitry Valuev, 42, of
Alexandria c arried a sign: “ I am
Russian and I support Ukraine.”
“I’m not the only one,” he said,
adding that he is a coordinator for
a group called Russian Americans
for Democracy in Russia. “The
message is to Ukrainians, to say
they are not alone in this fight, we
have a common enemy.... Putin is
cruel and dangerous to Russian
people; he has been for a long
time, and he won’t stop in
Ukraine.”
Under a sky with dark clouds,
the crowd turned to face the White
House and chanted, “USA, support
Ukraine” and “Putin is a criminal.”
— Jenna PortnoyVIRGINIAAlabama woman is
killed in Beltway crashA woman was killed while
sitting in her disabled vehicle on
the shoulder of Interstate 495 on
Saturday night w hen another car
crashed into hers, Virginia State
Police said.
Katherine A. Reyes, 20, of
Montgomery, Ala., was seated
inside her Honda CRV on the
westbound shoulder when it was
struck by a Buick Verano near Exit
174-Eisenhower Avenue
Connector in Fairfax County,
police said Sunday.
The crash, which occurred at
9:27 p.m., caused Reyes’s car to
catch fire, and she died at the
scene, police said. Her car had
flares lined up behind it and its
hazard lights flashing when it was
struck.
Police said the driver of the
Buick, Devon L. Lesene, 31, of D.C.
suffered minor injuries in the
crash and was arrested on charges
of D UI manslaughter, driving
while intoxicated, refusal to take a
breath test, and driving on the
shoulder. He is being held without
bond at Fairfax County’s Adult
Detention Center.
— Tara BahrampourLOCAL DIGESTResults from March 6
DISTRICT
Day/DC-3: 6-1-4
DC-4: 7-6-7-2
DC-5: 9-9-6-5-0
Night/DC-3 (Sat.): 0-1-3
DC-3 (Sun.): 1-5-0
DC-4 (Sat.): 8-2-7-6
DC-4 (Sun.): 6-1-9-2
DC-5 (Sat.): 7-7-1-7-7
DC-5 (Sun.): 1-2-9-9-3MARYLAND
Day/Pick 3: 7-2-6
Pick 4: 8-7-3-8
Pick 5: 0-5-2-4-8
Night/Pick 3 (Sat.): 1-3-4
Pick 3 (Sun.): 0-1-9
Pick 4 (Sat.): 1-8-9-5
Pick 4 (Sun.): 0-3-6-7
Pick 5 (Sat.): 6-1-1-9-1
Pick 5 (Sun.): 0-9-4-4-2
Bonus Match 5 (Sat.): 6-7-13-19-26 *20
Bonus Match 5 (Sun.): 2-4-5-8-16 *39VIRGINIA
Day/Pick-3: 7-6-8 ^0
Pick-4: 5-1-6-8 ^7
Night/Pick-3 (Sat.): 4-2-2 ^5
Pick-3 (Sun.): 0-6-1 ^7
Pick-4 (Sat.): 5-9-1-6 ^0
Pick-4 (Sun.): 2-8-0-4 ^2
Cash-5 (Sat.): 5-9-19-22-28
Cash-5 (Sun.): 4-6-7-14-40
Bank a Million: 21-22-28-31-34-36 * 18MULTI-STATE GAMES
Powerball: 8-23-37-52-63 †13
Power Play: 2x
Double Play: 2-25-32-33-50 †12
Cash 4 Life:8-13-39-55-59 ¶3
Lucky for Life:15-29-34-44-46 ‡8
*Bonus Ball †Powerball
¶ Cash Ball ‡Lucky Ball ^FireballFor late drawings and other results, check
washingtonpost.com/local/lotteryLOTTERIESexpand your horizons. Basically,
I want poems that encapsulate
the here and the now.
I’ll say it again: They must be
5-7-5 in syllabic style.
Send your entries — with
“Haiku” in the subject line — to
me at [email protected].
(But you knew that.) Include
your name and the city you live
in. I’ll pick some of my favorites
to print in a future column and
select one grand-prize winner.
The prize? Lunch with me, on
me. I’m assuming you’re
vaccinated?
The deadline is March 22.musings on blossoms, songbirds
or hoar frost. But a few years
ago, reality started intruding.
My 2020 contest featured many
entries that referenced what was
then a brand-new coronavirus.
(Five syllables, as it turned out.)
Last year, some readers chose to
note the treasonous violence at
the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.
And now here we are today,
when violence of a different
kind is erupting in Europe.
What I’m saying is: I still hope
to see some classic — if quirky —
springtime-in-Washington
haiku, but I’ll understand if youespecially as it would have to be
reinserted every time the story
is updated.
This isn’t an issue when you
read a story on
washingtonpost.com. There, you
can click on the author’s byline
and be taken to his or her
author page. Click on the little
envelope icon below their bio,
and your email program will
jump into action.
Let’s pause for a moment to
note the irony of a website using
an icon of a paper envelope to
signal an electronic missive.
There’s a box on Page A2 with
general department contact
info. And the style for our email
addresses is typically
firstname.lastname@
washpost.com. Thus, I’m
[email protected]. Feel
free to write. Just don’t be a
jerk.Hey, you: Haiku!
Can you haiku? Of course you
can. Should you? Sure!
It’s time for my annual
Springtime in D.C. Haiku
Contest. I want you to evoke the
very essence of the season in
three short lines of five, seven
and five syllables.
In the past, I have desired
haiku that were truly spring-
inspired. After all, the Japanese
poem style lends itself to spare
reflections on nature, crystallinecarries with it a concomitant
retreat:
Hey! I got a new iPhone! But I
can’t use my old headphones
with it.
Neato! The windows on my
car roll down with the push of a
button! But when the battery’s
dead, there’s no way to raise or
lower them by hand.Cool! I replaced my sextant
with GPS! But now that a
massive solar flare has fried all
the satellites, I’m lost in the
middle of the ocean.
In our case, the new
publishing system — the
interface we use to write and
edit our stories — can do many
nifty things, but it can’t
automatically append the
writer’s email address to the end
of an article so the address will
appear in print. The address
could be entered manually, but
I’m told that’s labor-intensive,Yes, the writers at
The Washington
Post still want to
hear from you,
the readers. I
mean, unless
you’re a troll,
prone to ad
hominem attacks,
threats and
scatological insults. Then, you
know, you should probably just
sit in a dark room for a while
and calm down. You’re not
doing anybody any favors by
converting your bile into an
email and pressing “Send.”
You can be forgiven for
believing we don’t want to hear
from you. A few weeks ago, the
email addresses that once
appeared at the end of every
story in the newsprint version of
The Post vanished. If you’re a
regular reader of Free for All —
our lively Saturday reader
gripefest about what we got
wrong that week — you’ll have
seen a letter from Reston reader
David Ballard inquiring why
those email addresses went bye-
bye.
I am here to tell you there is
no conspiracy or desire to
squelch reader interaction. If
you’ve worked in an office at any
point since, oh, 1990, you won’t
be surprised by the real reason:
We got a new computer system.
Every advance in technology
Our email addresses might be gone, but we’d still like you to write
John
Kelly's
Washington
I am here to tell youthere is no conspiracyor desire to squelchreader interaction atThe Washington Post.ASSOCIATED PRESS
A man tries out a 1980s-era IBM computer. At The Washington
Post, a new computer system has led to some changes in newsprint.demonstrators began their jour-
ney in California, there has been
concern that they could end it on
the streets of D.C.
Brase said Saturday night that
they are planning to stick with
loops around the Beltway, and
promised to preserve a “normal
commute” for area workers. He
said they plan to call attention to
the issues they care about with-
out violence or lawbreaking. “We
just have a message that we want
heard,” Brase said. “We’re not
going anywhere until it’s heard.”
As the truckers streamed back
to Hagerstown, commenters on
their live streams encouraged
them to get more aggressive,
suggesting they follow in the
footsteps of the demonstrators
that blocked highways for days in
Canada.
One protester broadcasting on
a Facebook page with thousands
of viewers lamented that he
didn’t know if the majority of
participants would agree to that.
“Seems like everybody has their
own ideas on how to do this,” he
said.and disdain for Biden. On poster
boards and tinted windows, they
complained about gas prices and
vaccine mandates. Using colorful
markers, they proclaimed false-
hoods such as “Trump won.” Doz-
ens of trucks waved American
flags. A few sported Confederate
battle flags.
Their circling of the nation’s
capital came at the end of a long
journey. Hundreds of vehicles be-
gan the trek 2,500 miles away in
California on Feb. 23. During the
cross-country trip, convoy orga-
nizers have rallied support by
calling pandemic restrictions and
mandates an infringement on
their freedoms.
Many of those measures at the
federal and local levels have been
blocked or rescinded. But Brase
wants vaccine mandates for
health workers, federal employ-
ees and military personnel to be
eliminated. Other demonstrators
spoke only of generic asks, such
as “taking back our freedom.”
It is unclear just how much
disruption the group is planning
for the coming days. Since thecompleted their second loop
around the District on Sunday
afternoon, their vehicles were far
fewer in number and far more
spread out. For most of their
journey, traffic around them
moved as usual. But their pres-
ence could create far more chaos
during a weekday, when Beltway
traffic will already be thick with
commuters.
“It is an unpredictable and
fluid event that we are witness-
ing,” said Christopher Rodriguez,
director of the D.C. Homeland
Security and Emergency Manage-
ment Agency. “Our residents,
commuters and visitors should
expect traffic disruptions over the
next several days.”
The Defense Department h as
agreed to extend the presence of
the D.C. National Guard through
Wednesday. Rodriguez said D.C.
police are working with Virginia
and Maryland state police to
monitor the situation. “While we
respect everyone’s rights to come
to the nation’s capital and exer-
cise their First Amendment
rights, what we won’t tolerate are
people who break our laws,” Ro-
driguez said.
Convoy organizer Brian Brase
has repeatedly said the convoy
will not enter the District. In-
stead, the demonstrators, who
have based themselves at the
Hagerstown Speedway in West-
ern Maryland, plan to increase
the number of trips around the
Beltway each day to pressure
lawmakers and public officials.
Brase has said the group wants
an end to the national emergency
declaration in response to the
coronavirus pandemic, first is-
sued by President Donald Trump
in March 2020 and later extended
by President Biden, and for Con-
gress to hold hearings investigat-
ing the government response to
the pandemic.
“We are law-abiding citizens
that are just exercising our rights
to this protest,” said Brase, a
37-year-old from northwest Ohio.
But “every day is going to elevate
what we do.”
On Sunday, the demonstration
began just before 9 a.m. at the
Hagerstown Speedway, where
many had spent the weekend.
After a pastor started things off
by telling the group they were
“heroes,” Brase instructed them
to drive between 45 and 55 mph
and stay in one line to best show
their size. The mostly White and
mostly male protesters raised
their coffees in salute.
Soon, the caravan began roll-
ing toward the Beltway with
horns blaring. It took nearly two
hours for all of the vehicles to
make it out of the speedway, and
nearly three hours for the trucks
at the front of the line to make it
to Interstate 495.
The convoy then began its
circuit on the outer loop. The
mass of vehicles caused conges-
tion as they merged onto the
highway. But once on Interstate
495, they mostly drove in a single-
file line at 45 mph, leaving plenty
of space for other cars to pass.
The first lap took the group
roughly an hour 4 0 minutes.
Maryland State Police and Vir-
ginia State Police increased the
presence of patrol vehicles to
maintain the flow of traffic. The
longer the convoy drove, the
more spread out the vehicles
CONVOY FROM B1
Convoy plans to keep circling Beltway to protest
MATT MCCLAIN/THE WASHINGTON POSTbecame, stretching a distance of
about 35 miles.
“We’re not even sure we can
call it a convoy any more because
it’s so dispersed among routine
traffic at this point,” Virginia
State Police spokeswoman
Corinne Geller said Sunday after-
noon.
Throughout the day, regular
drivers sped around and wove
between the protesters, trying to
get to their exits and not get
caught in the fray. But no convoy-
related accidents were reported.
The demonstrators wailed on
their horns any time they navigat-
ed beneath overpasses in Mary-
land and Virginia where people
watching the convoy were gath-
ered on foot. While some carried
signs that said “Go home,” the
majority were supportive of the
protest, waving banners that read
“Thank you” and “End tyranny.”
Their encouragement echoed
the supporters on social media,
where some protesters broadcast
their journeys on YouTube and
other platforms. Viewers of the
live streams could hear the manydrivers talking among them-
selves on their radios, comment-
ing on the unseasonably warm
day and bickering about how best
to make an impact. Some truck-
ers scolded others for getting too
spread out, worrying that “no one
is going to know there’s even a
convoy.”Local drivers, accustomed to
clogs in traffic, had a close view of
the many messages the protesters
had affixed to their vehicles, de-
claring their allegiance to TrumpMATT MCCLAIN/THE WASHINGTON POSTTOP: People stand along Georgetown Pike to watch the convoy of hundreds of vehicles on Interstate 495 in Virginia on Sunday.
LEFT: A truck carries a large cross as it drives around the Capital Beltway. Organizers said the convoy will circle the Beltway again on
Monday. RIGHT: People listen to organizers at the Hagerstown Speedway in Western Maryland before the convoy embarked on its loop.STEVE THOMPSON/THE WASHINGTON POST“We just have amessage that wewant heard. We’renot going anywhereuntil it’s heard.”
Brian Brase, “People’s Convoy”
organizer on why it came to the
D .C. region to circle the Beltway