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Work 4 Peace,Hold All Life Sacred,Eliminate Violence! I am on my mobile version of the door-to-door, going town-to-town holding readings/gatherings/discussions of my book "But What Can I Do?" This is my often neglected blog mostly about my travels since 9/11 as I engage in dialogue and actions. It is steaming with my opinions, insights, analyses toward that end of holding all life sacred, dismantling the empire and eliminating violence while creating the society we want ALL to thrive in

Saturday, October 30, 2004

do u believe in freedom of speech?

White republican males are a funny breed of thinkers for true. How many times have I been aggressively approached by the same who have pointed wildly to my truck & told me how lucky I am to live in a country that allows me to do that. Then they proceed to angrily order me out of the country, call me names, and tell me I do not deserve to live in this great land.
Do they ever think for one moment about what they are saying? I'm supposed to be so very grateful I'm 'allowed' to say what I believe on my truck that I do not say it, unless what I have to say supports their world view.
But the best example of this thinking happened today when I was on the street urging no stolen elections. An older model dull red truck with 2 young white males sitting in it, pulled over to the curb where I was standing, rolled down their window letting our a blast of welcomed icy air, and said they wanted to ask me a question. I welcome questions, I beg for questions, I treasure & value questions - for I have an opinion about everything.
The question the young man, sporting a short, new beard, demanded I answer is "do you believe in freedom of speech?"
"Yes, of course I believe in freedom of speech" I smile as I'm holding the megaphone.
"Well SHUT-UP then" he screams as he roars off.
well, shut-up then. hmmmmm


baby killers & the 'n - lover'

It is terribly hot and muggy in Jacksonville & we have no shade but plenty of water as we stand on a busy street entrance into the stadium – folks from Georgia and Florida are playing football today and CodePink has a new megaphone to address the hundreds of thousands of cars rolling by! After our last experience with the scary violent republicans at the bush rally, we were all a little tentative but bravely strode forward to greet the fans w/ our great banners & signs: ”no stolen election”, “don’t allow bush to be re-selected”, “bush lies, fire him” and “vote Kerry”, etc.
We are all delighted to find at least half of the responses are from wildly enthusiastic Kerry supporters! And then there’s the republicans – but things are sure different when you’re the one holding the loud-speaker! We got to call them out by car or truck & shame all the violent, loud, limited white men (and some women) who flipped us off, called us names, and generally did their posturing thing for us. Not to mention how we got to actually talk with them, as they were stuck in traffic – even the ones that hastily rolled up their windows after screaming obscenities at us, had to hear our calm response, our informed retort to their ignorance.
We were called baby killers by women & men alike; we got to demand they be really pro-life and stop the killing in iraq. When we were called communists, dykes & freaks we got to call people on their bigotry, demand they cease name-calling, & ask them to embrace & value diversity and dialogue. Many white men and a few white women were totally stressed out by the amount of hair they could observe on places other then our heads! Who remembered armpit hair could be such a powerful thing! And if they dared try to shout ‘4 more years’ we got to say ‘of war, of lies, of poverty, of tax-cuts for the rich’. when they said ‘go bush’ we said, yeah go to texas bush or go to hell bush!
Then there were the even uglier white males who shouted ‘n…lover’ at us – not one, but two different white men at 2 different times. At the first, I actually did laugh, not at the typical absurdity and bigotry of these individuals, but at the amount of years it had been since anyone had called me that.
But the best surprise for all of us was the great amount of support we got, horns blaring, hands clapping, fists in the air w/triumphant shouts – everyone rolling by saying the same thing: Kerry by a landslide!!!! it was awesome!
after the traffic died down, we all headed to grab a bite to eat and then off to the door-to-door canvassing for move-on.pac