Day of the Fallen

The Workers Defense Project organized a march and rally today called 'Day of the Fallen" to commemorate the deaths of construction workers in the state of Texas.  We began the march at the Federal Building Plaza and carried 138 black coffin replicas to the steps of the Texas Capitol. 

Although the coffins were built lightly of foam core board and contained only air, I felt the heaviness of the sadness we were conveying.

People had come for the march from as far away as El Paso, Houston, Dallas and San Antonio.  We numbered about 300, I think.  Included were union members and family members of construction workers who had died on the job.

Jim Hightower spoke, and Eliza Gilkyson sang.  Rev. Jim Rigby emceed.  There were prayers in English and in Espanol, gospel music and a singalong of "If I had a hammer," led by a young trio.

We stood with our CodePink banner in solidarity, and I watched legislators and their aides come out of the capitol, skirting our demonstration, looking sideways at the coffins.  I wanted them to stop and listen, but they walked quickly on.

On my way home, I looked out the bus window at the beautiful buildings in our downtown, the new lofts and storefronts.  Most of the people who built them can not afford to live in them.  Some of the people who built them were injured on the job.  Some were not paid for their work.  When I pass the spot on Rio Grande where three immigrant men fell to their deaths because of faulty equipment, I sense their spirits are present, asking me why.  The chic little shop that opened a few feet from where the men hit the earth is called, "Bodega on Rio."         

Flowers and solidarity in Egypt

wonderful account by Medea Benjamin, reporting from Cairo:

Our first attempt to buy flowers for the demonstrators in Cairo's Tahrir Square was thwarted by a crazed-looking guy with a gun in one hand and a homemade spear in another (pruning shears taped to a broomstick, to be exact). Three of us, all Americans, were in a taxi driving to the flower market when this fellow stopped our car at gunpoint. His hand on the trigger, he forced us to pull over. Soon we were surrounded by a dozen pro-Mubarak thugs who started yelling in Arabic and broken English that foreigners like us were causing all the trouble in Egypt.

They said they were policemen but none was wearing a uniform. They seized our passports and then four of these characters squeezed into our taxi to "take us to government headquarters." Frantic, we started calling everyone we knew--local lawyers and activists, friends back home, the U.S. Embassy.

Soon the car stopped at an intersection manned by about ten soldiers. The officer in charge peered into the car and asked us where we were from. "Americans," he smiled with approval. "I love America." He started chatting about his training in Ft. Eustis, Virginia, while we sat terrified. To our amazement, he ordered our kidnappers to get out of our taxi, return our passports and let us go. We sped off, not looking back. Our poor taxi driver was shaking. "No flowers," he said. "Hotel."

Back at the hotel, we discussed our options. We were thankful not to be in some dark interrogation room being beaten to a pulp, but we still wanted to get the flowers. Folks back home had donated money for us to support the activists, and these people were putting their lives at risk to overthrow a dictator supported by our taxdollars. We could donate blankets, food and medicines through Egyptian groups, but we had to get the flowers ourselves.

We decided that the blonds, Billy Kelly and I, would stay behind and we'd send Tighe Barry and Rob Mosrie, who blend in more. Instead of taking a taxi, they'd go by metro. If stopped, they would say they were buying flowers for a friend's funeral.


Miraculously, they returned two hours later with a truckload of flowers. Praying that no thugs would beat us up along the way, we piled the flowers in our arms, grabbed our "Solidarity with Egyptian People" banner, and headed toward the square.

People along the street started clapping, smiling, giving us the thumbs up. "Free, free Egypt," we shouted, as we were swept into the square by a sea of people. They were hugging us, kissing us, snapping our photos--and crushing us and the flowers. Thankfully, we were rescued from the chaos by a group of men who linked arms to form a ring around us. Steering us toward the main stage, they hoisted us onto the railing so that people could see us. We began throwing roses, carnations, gladiolas and marigolds into the cheering crowd who yelled out, in Arabic, "The People, United, Will Never Be Defeated."

It was exhilarating. What a privilege to feel connected to this joyous mass of humanity that was charting a new course for the entire Middle East. I was in awe of their bravery, their devotion, their love for their country and each other. I looked down and saw a teenager who had ripped open his shirt to proudly show us his chest full of bandages from the street battles. "You are my family," he shouted, as he jumped up and down, crying and blowing kisses our way. "I love you."

All of a sudden, there was a commotion next to us. A military man was making his way to the stage. It was General Hassan El-Rawani, the head of the army's central command, coming to speak to the masses. Someone handed him a white gladiola. He took it awkwardly, looked over at us and smiled. Then he addressed the crowd.

The military has been in an untenable position and this was a particularly tense day. The commanders had promised they would not attack peaceful protesters, but the government was fed up with the protesters camping out in the city's main plaza. Today was Saturday, day 12 of the uprising. The army had orders to clear the square by Sunday so that life in Cairo could "get back to normal." Everyone was worried about what the army would do. The crowd became silent as the General spoke.

He urged the people to leave the square peacefully. He told them they had won, that a new government had already been appointed. It was time to go home.

He also warned the people not to be manipulated by outside forces who were pushing them to keep up the protests. Like the thugs who carjacked us at gunpoint earlier in the day, pro-Mubarak forces have been putting forth this line that the protests are instigated by foreign forces--from Iran and Hamas to America and Israel--who want to create instability in Egypt.

One of the young pro-democracy organizers looked at us while the General was speaking and laughed. "It's crazy how they try to blame this purely Egyptian uprising on foreigners," he said. "Perhaps they'll try to say that these flowers are part of some American plot to incite the masses."

Meanwhile, the General was still asking the protesters to leave the square. They were respectful, but stood their ground. "We won't go till Mubarak goes," they chanted back at him.

Having tried his best, the General stepped down from the stage and walked back through the crowd. He was still holding the white gladiola. And the next day, the people were still holding the square.

photo by Medea Benjamin

Veterans carry out civil disobedience mission at White House gates

In cold and snowy conditions in Washington DC on Thursday, some 131 peace advocates, most of them military veterans, were arrested at the White House gates in a planned nonviolent civil disobedience action organized principally by members of Veterans for Peace. Among those arrested was Daniel Ellsberg, who, along with journalist, Chris Hedges and others, spoke eloquently before their arrests. Good videos and photos posted at the Veterans for Peace website.

photos above by Ellen Rachel Davidson

March of the Dead at SMU

Good piece by Medea Benjamin, published on Huffington Post:

Several thousand people lined up to see George Bush, Dick Cheney and Condoleezza Rice shovel dirt into a hole at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, the site slated to become the George Bush Presidential Center housing a museum, library and archives.

Over 100 peace activists showed up to protest, including New York City artist Laurie Arbiter, who helped organize a March of the Dead and carried a sign asking "Does America Have a Conscience?" "Rather than build a library, we should leave the broken ground and just fill it with a big pile of rubble," said Arbiter. "That would truly represent the catastrophic results of the Bush Administration."



As part of the March of the Dead, protesters dressed in black, wore white death masks and had signs around their necks representing dead Iraqis, Afghans and U.S. soldiers. The dramatic march stopped traffic and provoked strong emotions in passers-by, participants and even the police. Renee Schultz, who drove from Indianapolis to join the protest, wore the death mask and a sign representing a 23-year-old female U.S. soldier killed in Iraq. "When I first put on the mask, I just stood there and cried. I kept thinking, 'I am 23 years old and had my whole life ahead of me. Why did I die?'" Schultz looked over at the riot police and noticed that one of them also had tears streaming down his eyes.

When the marchers attempted to reach the public viewing area, the police forced them back to the designated "protest pen" far from the ceremony. One of the protesters, a wheelchair-bound veteran of the Korean War and World War II, angrily told the police that he did not fight in two wars to be told that his freedom of speech would be confined to a "protest zone."

The gathering was part of a three-day People's Response, filled with rallies, marches, teach-ins, and exhibits of crosses and soldiers' boots to represent the war dead. Organized by Texans for Peace, The Dallas Peace Center, CODEPINK and Veterans for Peace, among others, the speakers included former FBI agent Colleen Rowley, former CIA agent Ray McGovern, retired Colonel Ann Wright, professor Robert Jensen, and Texas State Representative Lon Burnam.

Among the protesters was also Cindy Sheehan, the Gold Star mother who led a prolonged protest outside Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas in 2005. "Bush should not be allowed to profit from war crimes, crimes that he has even admitted to," said Sheehan. "It's not right that he will make millions from his book and speaking engagements, while millions have been killed, displaced, tortured and had their lives ruined because of him."

The protesters focused on the lies Bush told the American public to justify invading Iraq, his authorization of torture and the need for accountability. "Accountability is the sign of a true democracy," said former CIA agent Ray McGovern. "No one should be above the law and the truth must not be buried or rewritten."

Protesters were also concerned about the policies the new Bush Center will promote. President Bush said the Center would include an "action-oriented institute" to advance the principles his administration stood for, including the "benefits of limiting the role of government in people's lives." According to local organizer Leslie Harris of CODEPINK, "this really means promoting the same kinds of disastrous policies that brought us pre-emptive war, economic crisis, environmental disaster, unprecedented presidential power, and diminished civil and human rights. We can't let one of America's worst presidents shape our future policies."

The peace activists who came to protest Bush also discussed their disappointment with the Obama administration and the difficulties they anticipate in pushing the new, more conservative Congress to stop funding the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Among the actions they encouraged were:

· supporting the Midwest anti-war activists whose homes were raided by the FBI and supporting the January 15 FBI protest in Washington DC;
· promoting local campaigns, including citywide resolutions, to bring our war dollars home;
· reaching out to allies, particularly groups victimized by the economic crisis, but also reaching out to members of the Tea Party who want to see cuts in Pentagon spending;
· pressuring the State Department to stop using private security contractors;
· supporting the December 16 veteran-led civilian disobedience in Washington DC;
· organizing a delegation to Iraq to take testimonies from Iraqis about George Bush and the legacy of the US invasion;
· building on the new calls by Amnesty International and the ACLU to prosecute Bush for war crimes;
· stopping John Yoo, author of the "torture memos", from teaching law at the UC Berkeley law school.

For some light entertainment after long days of protest, a group stopped by local Barnes and Noble to reshelve -- and photograph -- Bush's Decision Points in a more appropriate place in the store. These included placing the book next to The Murder Business in the True Crimes section, Wing Nuts in the Fantasy Section, When Law Fails: Making Sense of Miscarriages of Justice in the Legal Section, and our favorite in the Children's Section, Dr. Seuss' Will You Please Go Now?" With the renewed media attention on George Bush, including his sanctioning of torture, Bush might do well to take Dr. Seuss' advice.

AP photo by G.J. McCarthy

Our message on Election Day/All Souls' Day

International Day of Peace

On International Day of Peace, Sept. 21, we CodePink folks headed down to an intersection near City Hall to hold a large sign made by Heidi and a peace sign to accompany it. Just as we arrived, rain began to pour, so we stood a bit back from the road under the City Hall amphitheatre awning. Fortunately, Heidi had made the lettering large and bold, and we carried on!

Peace through play

This weekend, members of Iraq Veterans Against the War organized and held their first independent convention since their founding in 2004, and they chose Austin as their host city. Lucky for us! Our CodePink group provided the childcare for the convention, and I enjoyed the opportunity to be part of the convention in this way.

I spent most of my time at the convention with the children. We did free play, with a sort of "Adventure Playground" approach, where the children had basic materials with which to build and create things of their choosing. The convention was held at Huston-Tillotson University, and we had a standard classroom as the childcare room -- bare linoleum floor covered with about 20 heavy student chair/desks. Provided with sheets, blankets, paper, yarn, tape, clothespins, markers, paper blocks, books and a few other basic materials, the kids made use of the desks to create an inviting "fort" area that expanded throughout the weekend and led to various other projects they dreamed up. As always, with some basic adult guidance and support, kids will weave a world of marvelous invention.

Perhaps this is the underlying philosophy that leads me to reject militarism, occupation and war. If people have their basic needs met -- adequate and healthy food, water, health care, creative outlets -- then, generally, they (we) will thrive. Most people know what is best for themselves and will grow in healthy ways if given half a chance. Human powers of creation and invention are great. Why channel any of our inventive resources into such hugely destructive things as predator drones, cluster bombs, landmines, IEDs, automatic rifles?

In addition to the time with the children, the weekend was filled, for me, with meaningful, if brief, encounters with several of the veterans and invited guests to the convention, all of whom seemed to reinforce this essential message. As longtime friend, nonviolent activist, author and teacher, Kathy Kelly, said during her panel presentation, "If you want to counter terror, build justice." Justice begins with the building blocks of simple, elemental conditions that children need to grow and prosper.

Photos: IVAW member, Joe Wheeler and his daughters, Lily and Ivy (with one of the paper outfits she designed)

From Hummer to handlebars

It's been good riding my bike longer distances this week. Longer daylight, longer miles and longer looks at the scenery. In this spirit, I like this piece by Medea Benjamin about the burial/transformation of the Hummer during the US Social Forum in Detroit.

The Hummer Is Dead. And We Buried It

by Medea Benjamin

On the eve of a gathering of over 25,000 social justice activists in Detroit called the U.S. Social Forum, environmentalists and peacemakers led by the group CODEPINK converged to bury the symbol of the American hubris: the Hummer. One month after the last Hummer rolled off the production line, the activists gave the hulk of steel a proper burial.

The resting place chosen for the Hummer was the Heidelberg Project, an artistic community in downtown Detroit where dolls and plastic toys and shoes and shopping carts are transformed into street art. People come from far and wide to view the wild and wacky creations by artist Tyree Gupton. Heidelberg Street's message to Detroit and global visitors is one of renewal and hope in a city devastated by hard times and unemployment. The activists used the Hummer's demise to mark the end of a Rambo-like era, culture, lifestyle, and political philosophy. A converted military tank first sold to civilians in 1992 thanks to the promotion of action hero/Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Hummers represented an increasing militarization of our society and the glorification of war. They were also an energy sinkhole that helped fuel wars for oil and global warming. The Hummer's dreadful gas mileage of 8-10 miles per gallon was less than half the mileage of the Model T Ford 100 years ago! Hummers emitted over 3 times more carbon dioxide than average cars and they give off more smog-producing pollutants and dangerous particulates. But because they had been categorized as light trucks, they were exempt from meeting emission or fuel-efficiency standards.

While the $50,000-$150,000 Hummer models were advertised as the coolest, fiercest car on the road and a patriotic way to "support the troops", activists tried to label the Hummer an unpatriotic car that fueled war and warming. For years, CODEPINK women would do guerrilla theater at auto shows, climbing atop the vehicles and draping them with messages such as: "Real soldiers are dying in their Hummers so you can play soldier in yours." They held anti-Hummer actions at auto dealers, surrounding the monstrosities with bicycles and Priuses. They handed out traffic violation tickets, signed by Mother Earth.

Campaigns like that of CODEPINK raised awareness and shamed many a consumer from driving a Hummer. The Hummer also took a blow when the resistance movements in Iraq started blowing up Humvees with primitive IEDs. The burned shells on the side of the Baghdad roads tarnished the image of the "invincible King of the Road".

But the real blow came with the rise in oil prices. Sales plummeted when people had to cough up over $100 to fill the gas tank. The generalized economic crisis in the past two years put the nail in the coffin. And with the news that the Hummer was officially off the assembly line, CODEPINK made plans for the burial.

The H-3 Hummer that was buried in Motor City was bought from a parts yard for $500. The spanking new vehicle had been leased from a dealership but when the leasee discovered he owed more money then he had, he had the bright idea of torching the $100,000 tank and claiming it was an accident. The story didn't go down well with the dealer or the police. The macho man is now spending time in prison for arson and fraud, while the burned-out hulk of the vehicle became the centerpiece of CODEPINK's art installation.

With the help of a backhoe and a car carrier, the activists dug out the final resting place and slowly lowered the shell into the ground. They painted it bright pink with vines and flowers. John George, founder of Motor City Blight Busters brought four brightly painted butterflies to add to the emerging greenery. They filled the insides of the Hummer with dirt, and then festooned it with live plants, a rainbow of flowers and a pear tree bursting through the sunroof. The macho machine was suddenly transformed into a giant flower pot.

Just ahead of the buried Hummer, rising out from the ground, was a pink bicycle with an arrow pointing "To the Future." And off to the side, a car hood became the Hummer's memorial tombstone, lettered to read:

ODE TO THE HUMMER
Ashes to ashes, dust to dust
We bury a Hummer here to rust
And from these ashes, we recreate
A world of peace, an end to hate.

At the close of a long work day, the group held a solemn ceremony where they individually pledged to do more to help heal our planet. Then they sang, danced and rode bicycles on the Hummer's grave.

"I always wanted to dance on the Hummer's grave," said CODEPINK activist Tighe Barry, who directed the project and grew up in Detroit. As he bid the Hummer a formal farewell dressed in a pink Marine uniform decorated with peace symbols, he said, "For us, burying the Hummer is letting go of the macho ways of driving and dominating our streets, our economy and our foreign policy. It's time for a new trend of green jobs and renewable energy for all. We see the demise of the Hummer as a positive sign of the clean, green, peaceful planet we're determined to build."


Medea Benjamin is cofounder of Global Exchange and CODEPINK: Women for Peace

Speaking out, spoking out

I'm thinking about Diane Wilson today. She stood up to BP CEO, Tony Hayward as he began his address during a Congressional hearing in DC this morning. Smeared with artificial oil, she called out that Hayward should be prosecuted for his company's crimes against nature. She was handcuffed, taken out of the hearing room and jailed. Mr. Hayward proceeded to speak as a free man.

I have met Diane and have read her remarkable writings. She knows the waters and the sealife of the Gulf of Mexico intimately. She has made a living as a solo shrimper. She knows what she is talking about.

Here is an article that Diane wrote recently about the gulf and what she knows about the contamination it suffers at the hands of corporate polluters. The article begins this way:

I'm a fourth-generation fisherwoman from the Texas Gulf Coast, on a boat since I was eight. Over the last two decades, I've become a self-appointed watchdog of the chemical, oil, and gas corporations that are decimating the Gulf.

I hate to say it, but what I'm seeing now in the Gulf ain't nothing new. The toxic releases, the lies, the cover-ups, the skimping on safety, the nonexistent documents, the "swinging door" with regulators, the deaths. Same ole same ole.

What is new is the massive nature of the oil gusher and the fact that it can't be covered up because it's ongoing and being videoed. This elephant can't be swept under the carpet, but I'm sure if BP could, BP would.

There are politicians out there -- we've all heard them -- who say this oil spill is just one accident and one accident does not a case make. Heck, one plane crashes and you don't stop flying, do ya? Well, this isn't just one accident. This is the biggest flame among the thousands of fires set by Corporate America on its Sherman-like march across the Gulf.

and it concludes this way:

The bottom line is that the Gulf of Mexico dies a little every day from the tens of thousands of chemical plants, oil refineries, and oil and gas rigs that pockmark the Gulf and its coastlines. It's a death of ten thousand cuts, and many of these offenses don't get reported at all. We, the public, really have no way of knowing. The companies and the agencies certainly aren't going to tell us. They've proved that time and time again. The truth of the matter only becomes clear when something monstrous like the BP oil spill comes along and wakes us up to the nightmare.

It's hard to take in the immensity of the harm inflicted on our planet. Being aware of the barrels flowing every moment into our beloved Gulf of Mexico is like being ever conscious of the monetary and human costs of war accruing every moment. How can we stop the bleeding?

I admire Diane's courage in going right to the source. She can back up her nonviolent, dramatic protest with expert knowledge of the situation at hand.

My response to the catastrophe is less dramatic, but I feel in solidarity with Diane. For the past month, I've been walking or riding my bike more often than using the bus, which is one small way for me to accept some share of responsibility for living in an oil-dependent society, and to "be the change" I want to see in the world.

I haven't owned or driven a car since 1990, partly because of that oil war, so most in-town travel since then has been by bus -- which I love because of its community-building aspects. But now, I'm trying the further step of transporting myself more frequently by human power. Yesterday, for example, I biked for the first time to and from the job I have that is the furthest distance from my house. I biked about 15 miles total, which is not a lot compared to many bicycle commuters, but, for me, it felt like a good stretch in 95 degrees. What I enjoyed, as well as the scenery and the exercise, was being out there on my decorated "love your mother (earth)" bike. Passersby seemed to appreciate the sentiment.

The bicycle revolution that has been sparking the world in recent years is a big part of the solution to our energy crisis, I believe. This gives me encouragement and a way to act in the face of our planet's dire circumstances.

AP photo of Diane being taken out of the hearing room today after speaking out on behalf of the Gulf of Mexico she knows so well

Austin Pride

Some of us CP-ers went out to the Pride Parade in Austin last night. We stood at Congress and 3rd St. and it was great to see all the people there, both in the parade and along the route. The Public Library entry was especially cool. Lots of positive response to our signs, too, from paraders, including everyone from the police chief to the roller derby girls.

photos above by John Pesina, posted at Austin 360

More on the BP protest

Really good article by Medea Benjamin posted on The Rag Blog and Common Dreams about Monday's BP protest in Houston.

Following on concerns expressed in my previous post, there was an article in the Austin American-Statesman online yesterday about 7 oil cleanup workers being hospitalized due to exposure to oil and chemicals, but I didn't see the article in today's print version. I think it's an important part of the whole picture to be aware of what cleanup actually entails and the effects on the people who do it.

Exposing the Naked Truth about Drill, Baby, Drill

Congratulations to the CodePinkers who followed Diane Wilson's lead in organizing the "Exposing the Naked Truth About Drill, Baby, Drill" demonstration in front of BP headquarters in downtown Houston today. Several CodePink Austin and Dallas activists joined the protest.

Check out this interview with Diane on MSNBC's Dylan Ratigan Show.

The Houston Chronicle also has a good story and video here.

Diane, as a fourth-generation shrimper, knows her beloved Gulf Coast better than most, and she has engaged in numerous acts of civil disobedience in defense of the ecosystem there. As Medea Benjamin says, this horrendous spill may be the planet's last straw. We humans must, in every way we can, support alternatives to an oil-based energy system.


All photos posted above are from the CodePink flickr page, except for the top photo (of our own Heidi Turpin and her remarkable fish costume), taken by AP photographer, Pat Sullivan, as posted on the site of today's Houston Chronicle.

Loving our Mother via the Houston Art Car Parade

There's a social mixer exercise where people in a group tell each other, in turn, something they think others are unlikely to know about them. For me, the idea is not just to learn more about each other, but to be reminded that we are all deeper and broader than we will ever know. One aspect of empathy is the happy surprise.

Sometimes, I do a version of this exercise in my head when I am with some people I know and others I don't -- thinking, that is, about the remarkable qualities and circumstances I know about folks, and wondering whether, if others knew those things, would it change the ways they think?

I was doing this last Saturday in Houston as I rode along with our CodePink Austin Peacemobile entry in the fabulous Houston Art Car Parade. Our theme was "Love Your Mother," -- since the parade is held the day before Mother's Day -- with "Mother" meaning our common planet as well as all moms everywhere. We also meant: peace is green, and war is not.

Four of our group rode in the Peacemobile, and six of us rode our bicycles alongside the car as part of our entry. This year, because we had held a fundraiser in Houston the night before for the GI Coffee House, Under The Hood, our group included the UTH director, her two daughters, and two young US Army veterans from Killeen.

The parade, the largest of its kind in the world, is lined with thousands of spectators. I thought about my friends in the Peacemobile. Would the crowd guess that in the passenger seat was a soldier who is going through the process of filing as a Conscientious Objector? Would they know that in the back seat was a woman who worked for years at the Johnson Space Center in Houston and also felt so strongly about the wrongness of US policies in Central America that she spent 6 months in prison for an act of civil disobedience on a US Army base? Would they guess that the child sitting next to her was the daughter of a Ft. Hood soldier who did three tours of duty in Iraq, even after a serious head injury during his second?

I think the people exchanging peace signs with us would have been surprised to learn that one of us on the bikes was just recently released from the military brig in Ft. Lewis, WA after serving a term for refusing to deploy to Afghanistan. They might have seen his t-shirt with peace sign and just assumed he was a "peace-nik" since day one. Would they guess that he hails from Kentucky, plays and sings 90's country, and is a devoted Christian?

As I thought about my companions, I was full of wonder. What were the chances that each of us would find our way to this moment, sharing this parade?

As we rode along, I also watched the crowd. Making eye contact with as many people as I could, I called out, "Happy Mother's Day!" Lots called out in response, "You, too!" or "Love Your Mother!" as they read the messages on the car and my bike. When I looked into their faces, I could catch only a glimpse of the mysteries they contained.

To me, that's the essence of why war must end. Every person is a universe of experience and potential. How could we destroy such a deep well, a vessel of possibility? How could we kill someone who we might find, one day, tooling along beside us in a parade?

When President Obama campaigned on the "Change" theme, I thought most about how individuals can change, rather than how things change. We evolve over the course of our lives. If lives are cut short, denying us the opportunity to change, then evolutionary progress on a larger scale suffers, too.

The Houston Art Car parade is all about creation and transformation. We're outlandish, unique and beautiful, rolling forward together. Happy Mother's Day, everyone!

photos:
from top, moi on my peace bike, from bubbaofthebubbles' flickr site (Bubba is my neighbor, Robert, he of yard art fame)
the Peacemobile, with globe engineer, Heidi
the Peacemobile on parade, from Boptimist's flickr site
my favorite other biker, from Barry D's flickr site

International Women's Day March in San Antonio!

I sure felt in good company today as 6 of our Austin CodePink group took part in San Antonio's 20th annual International Women's Day March. I was moved by the diversity of the crowd. The signs and banners were numerous and imaginative, containing messages that drew together all kinds of social justice issues: GLTB equality, labor rights (especially for hotel workers in the Hyatt, where the march began this year), environmental justice and safety, freedom from racism, greater funding for education and health care, and stopping the militarization of youth. Peace signs and messages were a unifying theme throughout.
Heidi made the bold banner we carried, WOMEN SAY NO TO WAR, and the pink fuzzy peace signs that always draw people. Plus, they make it easy to find each other in a crowd ...

Thank you to Sylvia Thompson for these awesome photos!

[See this good article about the march by Chris Kutalik, published in LaborNotes]

Counting human lives

Yesterday evening, 6 of us with CodePink Austin held an hour vigil along the Cesar Chavez side of City Hall Plaza, marking the sad passing of the 1,000 mark in the number of US OEF troop deaths, mostly in Afghanistan. The figure doesn't reflect the number of troops who have died as a result of suicide. The number of Afghan civilians killed since October 2001 is an unknown number probably greater than 28,000.

As we stood with our signs, the flag-draped coffins, civilian shoes and pair of combat boots, motorists passed us from 3 directions. Most seemed to look on without much expression. Some honked. I noticed only two give us the thumbs-down.

It's a strange and sad feeling to mark a certain number of deaths when every human life is of equal value, soldier and civilian. When will this end?

While we were there, a reporter and photographer from The Daily Texan came by to talk with us and take pictures. See their story in today's issue.

photo by Heidi Turpin

Make Out Not War!

Per the previous post, seven of us congregated on SoCo on the afternoon before Valentine's Day to distribute fliers and "Make Out Not War" stickers to folks on the sidewalks. The fliers contained the info below, stressing the ways that family relationships are hurt by war and military life, and asking people to phone their Congresspersons to weigh in on misplaced budget priorities.

People were fairly receptive to the fliers and stickers, and there were lots of smiles in response to our entourage. When we stood in one place and handed out the fliers, I noticed that people seemed more reluctant to take them than when we strolled along and passed them out as folks passed us. Some people were eager to see the info and wanted to have their photos taken with us (especially with Heidi in her Valentine costume!). A couple of my favorites were the child above and a man who asked us to put a sticker on the back of his wheelchair.

We distributed 400 fliers and about 500 of the stickers.

Special thanks to Hart with IVAW for joining us!

Here's the flier content:

• Military divorce rates are on the rise. The divorce rate in the armed forces edged up again in 2009 despite many programs to help struggling couples. (Source: http://www.wivb.com/dpp/military/Military-divorce-rate-edges-higher1259359250732)
• Military families and partners are at high risk for domestic violence. In one study, it was determined that the military rate of domestic violence was three times higher than civilian rates. (Source: http://www.civicresearchinstitute.com/dvr_military.pdf)
• Prolonged deployments are associated with increased rates of depression among U.S. Army spouses. Studies show that many soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan suffer mental health problems. This new study shows that long and multiple deployments also take a toll on the families. (Source: http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/362/2/101
• The rate of child maltreatment in families of enlisted soldiers increased by 42 percent when military spouses were off at war. The child maltreatment rate in military families doubled after October 2002, while civilian rates remained the same. (Source: http://pn.psychiatryonline.org/content/42/17/8.1.full)
The Obama administration plans to ask Congress for an additional $33 billion to fight unpopular wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, on top of a record request for $708 billion for the Defense Department for 2011. At a time of high unemployment, when 12% of Americans rely on food banks due to hunger, spending so much to fund war is tragic.
PLEASE call your congressperson to say: Freeze Pentagon spending and support real family values by funding job creation, health care and education.
Congressional switchboard: 202-224-3121

photos by makingpeace (the sign, "Peace &" read "JOY" on the other side)