New Civilization News: A Demonstration |
Category: Activism 6 comments 13 Sep 2005 @ 10:19 by jstarrs : Another Jazz roots report.....from which I'm very grateful. Is the demo on the 24th well publicized/known in the US? Good luck & prayers to you all, anyway. 13 Sep 2005 @ 20:15 by jazzolog : From Annie "After talking with the folks who are organizing the media for Sheehan (True Majority and Move On), plus local volunteers that have no experience I can see that this is a rag tail group much as I would envision the grassroots folks that began our own revolution so many years ago. They aren't polished or even able to agree on their own beliefs. They are clear though that their bus tour is about military families speaking out, and I admire their tenacity. "I once believed this was an opportunity for those of us against the war (for peace) to see a ground swell of movement to make change, but as my darling husband relates, 'Everyone just wants bread and roses, and they aren't going to jump up to change things.'" 14 Sep 2005 @ 02:56 by judih : excellent information Thanks for being there and bringing it into my experience. Vicarious is good when it's brought right to the door of the heart. When I was walking through Union Park, NYC, this past August, the folks were handing out flyers about the 24th in DC. I guess just about anyone walking through that park then and since knows about the march. The question is, will it have to be 'sterile' as well? Is anybody here at NCN going to be there? judih 23 Sep 2005 @ 08:51 by jazzolog : CindySheehan,Iraq Veterans In Washington The coalition caravan of Gold Star Families for Peace, Iraq Veterans Against the War, Military Families Speak Out, and Veterans For Peace arrived in Washington on Wednesday. Their vehicles were stopped by police somewhere near the Capitol and searched for bombs. They also were informed no campers and such are allowed to drive around the area anymore, much less park...so they took them outside the restricted area of our nation's capitol city, left them, and walked in. The Stop The War rally is Saturday in Washington, and TruthOut has a page to show pictures and issue reports, in case you're not going. http://truthout.org/campcaseydc.shtml One of the first things the families did was write the President a letter, which hopefully somebody will read. I will guess Bush'll be out of town Saturday, since another post-disaster op is at hand for him. Anyway, this is the letter~~~ Letter Delivered to the White House on Wednesday 21 September 2005 Dear President Bush, We are veterans, families of active-duty military service people, and parents of soldiers who died as a result of the war in Iraq. We have been traveling the country from your vacation ranch in Crawford, TX, speaking to the American people about the true cost of your war based on lies. We have brought this nation a precious gift - the truth. It is a truth that you have tried so hard to hide, as you banned the media from photographing flag-draped coffins as they come in to Dover Air Force Base. We brought the anguish of military families whose loved ones are and will be in harms way for no good reason. We brought the determination and the pain of Iraq Veterans, who all took a vow to defend the Constitution of this country, but were betrayed by being sent off the fight an unjustifiable war. And we brought the voice of veterans from the Vietnam War who know so well about physical and psychological damage from a war that should never have happened. In 51 cities, 28 states and over 200 venues, we carried the message: Bring Our Troops Home Now, Take Care of Them of When They Get Home and Never Again Send Them Off to a War Based on Lies. President Bush, we are outraged by the arrogance you displayed on May 1, 2003 when you declared Mission Accomplished while the killing and dying continued; when you said on July 2, 2003, Bring Em On in response to a question about the armed Iraqi resistance; and when you refused to meet with the families of the fallen and with military families in August of this year in Crawford, Texas. We have come across this country, to Washington, D.C. to once again ask you to meet with us. We still have questions for you: What is the noble cause for which you sent our country to war? How many more lives are you willing to sacrifice? What are you going to do to end the war? As the President, we expect you to listen to the voices of those who know the real cost of this war. We expect you to listen to the voices of those who truly support the troops. We expect you to answer our questions about this war. We expect you to hear us as we say, bring them home now. We will not cease until all of our loved ones are brought home from a war they should never have been sent off to fight, until they get the care they need, and until we are sure that they are never again sent off to a war based on lies. Sincerely, Gold Star Families for Peace, Iraq Veterans Against the War, Military Families Speak Out, and Veterans For Peace http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/C092205Z.shtml 25 Sep 2005 @ 10:40 by jazzolog : The March In Washington My wife left Athens in a full bus at 2 AM yesterday and got back at about 2 AM this morning. I didn't manage to get out of bed to see her and of course she'll sleep for a few more hours. I look forward to hearing her impressions. Estimates of turnout range around 300,000 to half a million people (C-SPAN) around the White House, with CNN's figure of 600,000 being the largest I've seen. TruthOut has a log of the day...sort of... http://truthout.org/campcaseydc.shtml and YahooNews has photos galore, starting here http://news.search.yahoo.com/news/search?p=Washington+march&ei=UTF-8&xargs=0&pstart=1&c=images&b=1 . Here's the speech Cindy Sheehan gave~~~ Patriotic Dissent By Cindy Sheehan t r u t h o u t | Speech Saturday 24 September 2005 Ahhhh, I love the smell of Patriotic Dissent in the afternoon! As we stand here on the grounds of a monument that is dedicated to the Father of our Country, George Washington, we are reminded that he was well known for the apocryphal stories of never being able to tell a lie. I find it so ironic that there is another man here named George who stays in this town between vacations, and he seems to never be able to tell the truth. It is tragic for us that our bookend presidents named George have two completely different relationships with honesty. I also find it ironic and heartbreaking that my son, Casey, who was a brave person, tall and proud, who loved his country and was honest beyond measure, could be sent to his death by someone who is even too cowardly to meet with a broken-hearted mom, let alone go and fight in the illegal and immoral war of his generation. We are losing our best and our brightest in a country that we are destroying, that was no threat to the United States of America. Iraq was and still is no danger to our safety and security, or to our way of life. The weapons of mass destruction and mass deception reside in this town: they are the neocons who pull the strings and the members of Congress who have loosened the purse strings with reckless abandon and have practically given George and company a blank check to run our country into monetary and moral bankruptcy. We are out here in force today to take our country back and restore true democracy and sanity to our political process. The time is now, and we are here because we love our country, and we won't let the reckless maniacs destroy her any further. We, as a young colony of Great Britain, broke from another tyrant, King George the Third. Well, I wish our George the Third were here today to see us out here in force protesting against his war and against his murderous policies. George is not here, though, because he is out galavanting around the country somewhere pretending that he cares about the people who are in the path of hurricane Rita. We know that he cares nothing for the people of America: Katrina, Iraq, and his idiotic response to 9/11 are evidence of that. He is just out and about play-acting like a President whose country is in crisis, just like he pretends to be a Commander in Chief and a Cowboy (I wonder if before he took off to Texas or Colorado or wherever he went, he watched a movie like Independence Day to see how that other fake president acted?). The reason he is out today is that his handlers told him that he got a little flak for playing golf and eating birthday cake with Senator McCain while some of his employers were hanging off rooftops and treetops in New Orleans. He swaggers around arrogantly like he is a macho dictatorial tyrant who doesn't have to answer to his employers, the people of the United States of America. Those days are over George, we are here today to tell you that we are a majority and we will never rest until you bring our young people home from the Middle East, and until you start putting money into rebuilding OUR communities: the ones natural disasters destroy with your help, and the ones which your callous and racist war economy are decimating. We won't allow you to take anymore money out of social programs to finance Halliburton to rebuild the Gulf States: there is no money. Our bank account is empty. George, this is our rainy day and you have failed us miserably. Stop pouring money into the pockets of the war profiteers and into building permanent bases in Iraq ... It is time to bring our billions of dollars home from Iraq too!!! One thing the Camp Casey movement that hunkered down in Crawford, Texas, this past August taught us is that we the people of America have the power and we can and should name our national policy and make sure it is carried out. I constantly get asked if we are making a difference and if we think (like we're naïve boobs) that we will actually stop the war. Well, looking back at how Vietnam was ended and looking back in the history of our country, most notably in the suffragette, union, and civil rights movements, we the people are the only ones who have been able to transform history and affect true and lasting change here in America: so to those people who question if we are making a difference: I tell them to go back to school and read their history books!! And another thing these questioners overlook is that WE ARE MAKING A DIFFERENCE!!! And we are here to tell the media, Congress, and this criminal and criminally negligent administration: WE ARE NOT GOING AWAY!!! We in the peace movement need to agree on one thing: yes we need an exit plan, but it is not a strategy, it is a command. The command should be: have all of our military personnel and paid killer mercenaries out of Iraq within 6 months, and the generals carry out the command. Simple, it's not brain surgery, and I think it is so easy even George Bush can sign the order. We can't give the homicidal maniacs any wiggle room or long-term strategy sessions. For one thing, when our leaders strategize, we are put in even more jeopardy - they have proven that they are not too bright or even a little compassionate. But the most important thing is that people die every day in Iraq for absolutely no reason and for lies. We have to say NOW because the people on the other side are saying NEVER. We can't compromise, we can't say please, and we can't retreat. If we do, our country is doomed. We have to honor the sacrifices of our loved ones by completing the mission of peace and justice. It is time. Bring our troops home, NOW! http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/092405Y.shtml 27 Sep 2005 @ 06:44 by jazzolog : Dana's Account Of The March Saturday (good pictures at BradBlog http://www.bradblog.com/ ) My experience at the Washington anti-war rally yesterday: We had 500,000 protesters, C-Span estimated (regardless of what most media have said- which appeared to rely on what the orginal pre-rally estimate from the organizers had said). They stretched all along the parade route, which you can see here: http://www.unitedforpeace.org/downloads/UfPJ-march-map.pdf All I know is that it was HUGE. The DC Metro was packed like sardines.(We heard that the some Metro lines were 'down' and that the Amtrak from New York to Washington was not operating for two hours- strange, huh?) They delayed the march to wait for New Yorkers to arrive. People continued to come in droves, piling into the parade at streets that intersected with the parade route. That meant it took us 2 hours to get the four blocks from the Ellipse starting point to the White House. Once our group got past the WH, we realized there was no way we could go the whole parade route and still catch the Metro back to our meet up point at Shady Grove (the last stop on the Metro, past Rockville, Md) in time to leave at 6. We had to fight our way back through the way we came. I saw many older people, conservatively dressed, mixed in with soldiers (active and retired), students, middle-aged activists, parents with young kids. We met one couple with 3 kids (each one with a sign) who told us his brother was scheduled for deployment to Iraq soon. He was embraced by one of our group, whose son just came back after 2 tours. They cried together- as did other 'military moms' who found us in the crowd. I saw a lot of military families and personnel. I saw contingents from all over the US. It was a true cross-section of the country (minus the rightwing except for a few anti-abortion, pro-war- I saw 6 people), which is what the organizers were hoping for. Here is William Rivers Pitt's blog from the march: http://truthout.org/campcaseydc.shtml And this bit from Truth Out: Numbers By Scott Galindez Saturday 24 September 2005 11:08 PM It is safe to say that there were hundreds of thousands of people marching against the war in Iraq today. Police Chief Charles Ramsey's only statement was that the organizers achieved their goal of 100,000. The DC police refused to make any other estimate. C-Span estimated 500,000, a number that I believe was possible from my observations. I was on the corner of Pennsylvania and 15th on the steps of Riggs bank when the march began. People were still arriving from all directions. The massive amount of people moving in all directions prevented a front of the march from forming. People just started marching on their own with no marshals anywhere near the front of the march. Thousands of people passed me before any organized contingent. The first major contingent that passed me were thousands of students with signs that said "college not enlistment." Thousands of people later, I finally saw what was intended to be the lead banner. I saw Congresswomen Lynn Woolsey and Barbara Lee, the Reverend Al Sharpton, and other dignitaries carrying that banner. Thousands of people behind that came the Iraq Veterans Against the War. Joan Baez was marching with them right next to Marine Jeff Key and dozens of other veterans of the Iraq war. Behind them was Gold Star Familes for Peace. About half a block later came Veterans for Peace, with Military Familes Speak Out a short distance behind them. At the time I assumed that they were in the middle of the march. I later found out that while they were not near the front, they were much further from the rear. I moved down to Pennsylvania and 13th to catch the front again and noticed for hours that there were still people heading up 15th street. I headed to the concert at 4:30 pm, 4 hours after the march began, and people were still marching past the White House, only 4 blocks from the march's starting point. To summarize, it took over 4 hours for people to clear out of the Ellipse area. I have been to several large marches in Washington DC since 1989 and this was by far the largest. 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