We're at a crossroads as a country. Millions have lost their jobs; homes have been foreclosed on; and an unconscionable number of children live in poverty. We have to stand up to the people who have caused this and confront the rampant greed and deliberate manipulation of our democracy and our economy by a tiny minority of the 1 percent.
We have a long history over everyday people shaping the direction of our country by standing up for their own dignity, and community. Rosa Parks refused to sit in the back of a bus in Alabama, and sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Workers in Flint, Michigan, occupied their plant to form a union. Women took to the streets and held hunger strikes to demand the right to vote.
Inspired by Occupy Wall Street, and the recent fight for workers in Madison, Wisconsin, the 99% will rise up this spring. We'll start by training 100,000 people in April to take direct action on our own campaigns to win change.
We will win change with people power. We will dramatically increase our people power when we train a massive amount of people to join in sustained, non-violent action to reclaim our country.
Be one of the 100,000 People trained to take action
Website-- the99spring.com
Contact Doug Rawlings at rawlings@maine.edu for more information.
Located at the University of Maine at Farmington, Wenesday April 11th, from 9 am to Noontime.
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Tell me which side are you on?
Yesterday afternoon there was a rally in t he Maine State House, sponsored by Occupy Maine and The Bring Our War Dollars Home Coalition of Maine. There were a variety of speakers, ranging from high school students, to the current mayor of Waterville, Karen Heck.
Morgana, and you can see LePage in the background
The rally was an interesting interaction between the speakers and the audience. Perhaps the best moment of the afternoon was when Governor Lepage walked in as high school student Morgana Warner-Evans was introducing her song titled "Which Side Are You On" and she said that both of her parents are teachers, and that she was tired of public officials saying that teachers are lazy. She even changed the words of the song to say "They say up in Augusta, you're on a big rampage. You're either with the union, or you support LePage. Tell me which side are you on? There was even one point where it seemed that LePage stuck his tongue out at us before going back into his office as the audience was chanting "shame, shame, shame"
Karen Heck was a phenomenal speaker, asking "what kind of country have we become when we are killing and maiming women and children halfway around the globe? At the same time we're abandoning poor women and children here at home"
Karen Heck was a phenomenal speaker, asking "what kind of country have we become when we are killing and maiming women and children halfway around the globe? At the same time we're abandoning poor women and children here at home"
Waterville Mayor, Karen Heck
I also spoke about the impacts that military spending has on higher education, and how student debt it expected to reach 1 trillion dollars by the end of this year, and how tuition has increased 29 percent in the last 5 years alone, and students are borrowing twice as much money as they were a decade ago.
Towards the end of the rally, there was an interesting interaction between myself and some of the State Senators and Representatives. They were standing behind the stairs, talking rather loudly, and I went over, and politely asked them to lower their voices as it was difficult to hear the speakers, and in return I received an extremely disrespectful "we'll quiet down when you do"
Overall, the rally was successful, there were about 100 people in attendance, and Channel 5/13 was there covering the rally, and I was even interviewed, although I do not know if I made it onto TV. But having mainstream news coverage is always a plus for us.
For a video of the rally you can contact Regis Tremblay of Occupy Maine TV at 207.400.4362.
Lisa and I.
Banners on the stairs
Regis Tremblay of Occupy Maine TV
Myself, Lisa Savage, Jacqui Devaneau, and Mark Roman.
Monday, March 12, 2012
Why I am so tired of the war on Women.
Rep. Lance Harvell: why should insurance plans cover pap smears?-- here is the link to the video, I couldn't put the video in here.
Dear Lance Harvell,
I can tell you why Pap Smear should be covered by insurance. BECAUSE IT'S A FUCKING PREVENTATIVE MEASURE! Would you rather have to pay for cervical cancer treatment for hundreds of women? I'm guessing no, because I'm sure you would consider that "bad health." But think about this, a pap smear is a whole lot cheaper than cancer treatment.
Now, I don't know where you, and the rest of the GOP gets off on telling me what I can and cannot do with my body. But like my monologue in The Vagina Monologues says "my short skirt has nothing to do with you" replace short skirt with vagina, and you get the picture. I am so sick and tired of this blatant war on women, that none of you will admit that you are waging. If you don't want to pay for my birth control, that I take for health reasons, not because I'm a slut having so much sex that I can't afford to pay for condoms, that is fine. But I don't want to pay for your Viagra, or whatever ED treatment you're on. After all, if the government can control my vagina, than they can control your penis as well.
Dear Lance Harvell,
I can tell you why Pap Smear should be covered by insurance. BECAUSE IT'S A FUCKING PREVENTATIVE MEASURE! Would you rather have to pay for cervical cancer treatment for hundreds of women? I'm guessing no, because I'm sure you would consider that "bad health." But think about this, a pap smear is a whole lot cheaper than cancer treatment.
Now, I don't know where you, and the rest of the GOP gets off on telling me what I can and cannot do with my body. But like my monologue in The Vagina Monologues says "my short skirt has nothing to do with you" replace short skirt with vagina, and you get the picture. I am so sick and tired of this blatant war on women, that none of you will admit that you are waging. If you don't want to pay for my birth control, that I take for health reasons, not because I'm a slut having so much sex that I can't afford to pay for condoms, that is fine. But I don't want to pay for your Viagra, or whatever ED treatment you're on. After all, if the government can control my vagina, than they can control your penis as well.
And to all the members of the GOP and the Tea Party. I just want to remind you that a woman never forgets. And this woman won't forget when November rolls around.
Friday, March 9, 2012
Practical Maine Government.
This semester, on the spur of the moment, I signed up for the class "Practical Maine Government" taught by State Senator Tom Saviello. Now I will preface this, by saying that I have no problems yet with Saviello, I just happen to have a major issue with the speaker that we had in class last night.
Last night, our speaker was Bruce Poliquin, the state Treasurer, and he is now apparently running for Senate. He was appointed to his position by LePage, which should already give you some indication of his political leanings and viewpoints. The entire class he spouted himself as a "fiscal conservative." So at the end of his little chat, I raised my hand for the first time in class and asked this question
"I am a member of The Bring Our War Dollars Home Coalition (which he had never heard of), and I think that the amount of money that we spend on our military is too much, and something needs to be done about that. Now you keep billing yourself as a fiscal conservative, so what are you planning on doing about cutting military spending in order to balance the budget and fund other programs?"
Now, he did not answer my question in the slightest, and gave the usual talk around in regards to military spending, and gave the usual line "we're free because of the military" and he also did the personal line about how "he couldn't imagine his son serving," but refused to acknowledge that cutting military spending would help with the fiscal crisis that we are facing here in the US. Also, when he was talking, he was repeatedly asking what is wrong with this country, in regards to our excessive spending. I have a two word answer for him "military spending."
He also talked about the issue that students are facing when it comes to finding jobs in Maine when they graduate college, and he said "get the best education you can, and keep your debt low" which to me is an oxymoron, because chances are, if you want to get a spectacular education, you want to go to a good school. And even going to a mediocre school doesn't always help you keep your debt low, I'm going to be almost 30 grand in debt when I graduate in May. He also told us "get a job, work part time, and put yourself through school." My question to him is, what jobs? There are next to no jobs in Farmington, words cannot describe how thankful I am for my 7 hours a week that I work at the library, which allows me to just squeak by and pay my tuition with the help of my parents, and I realize that I am one of a few students who have the luxury of being able to count on my parents for minimal help. I think it's easy for him to tell us to get jobs and pay for school, when he acknowledged that he pays his son's tuition.
This entire class, made me realize that Poliquin is not in touch with the youth of Maine, which is something that does not surprise me, as he is clearly a member of the Tea Party. But also, I want to end with this quote from him "the goal isn't to help the wealthy, its to keep the money in the state." Now I don't have words for that quote, because I am quite frankly tired of the rich saying that they want to keep their money to "help" when they are not helping at all. Now Poliquin might not be a member of the 1 percent, but he sure is a 1 percent sympathizer.
Last night, our speaker was Bruce Poliquin, the state Treasurer, and he is now apparently running for Senate. He was appointed to his position by LePage, which should already give you some indication of his political leanings and viewpoints. The entire class he spouted himself as a "fiscal conservative." So at the end of his little chat, I raised my hand for the first time in class and asked this question
"I am a member of The Bring Our War Dollars Home Coalition (which he had never heard of), and I think that the amount of money that we spend on our military is too much, and something needs to be done about that. Now you keep billing yourself as a fiscal conservative, so what are you planning on doing about cutting military spending in order to balance the budget and fund other programs?"
Now, he did not answer my question in the slightest, and gave the usual talk around in regards to military spending, and gave the usual line "we're free because of the military" and he also did the personal line about how "he couldn't imagine his son serving," but refused to acknowledge that cutting military spending would help with the fiscal crisis that we are facing here in the US. Also, when he was talking, he was repeatedly asking what is wrong with this country, in regards to our excessive spending. I have a two word answer for him "military spending."
He also talked about the issue that students are facing when it comes to finding jobs in Maine when they graduate college, and he said "get the best education you can, and keep your debt low" which to me is an oxymoron, because chances are, if you want to get a spectacular education, you want to go to a good school. And even going to a mediocre school doesn't always help you keep your debt low, I'm going to be almost 30 grand in debt when I graduate in May. He also told us "get a job, work part time, and put yourself through school." My question to him is, what jobs? There are next to no jobs in Farmington, words cannot describe how thankful I am for my 7 hours a week that I work at the library, which allows me to just squeak by and pay my tuition with the help of my parents, and I realize that I am one of a few students who have the luxury of being able to count on my parents for minimal help. I think it's easy for him to tell us to get jobs and pay for school, when he acknowledged that he pays his son's tuition.
This entire class, made me realize that Poliquin is not in touch with the youth of Maine, which is something that does not surprise me, as he is clearly a member of the Tea Party. But also, I want to end with this quote from him "the goal isn't to help the wealthy, its to keep the money in the state." Now I don't have words for that quote, because I am quite frankly tired of the rich saying that they want to keep their money to "help" when they are not helping at all. Now Poliquin might not be a member of the 1 percent, but he sure is a 1 percent sympathizer.
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
My Thoughts on Kony 2012.
With the Kony 2012 video that is clogging up my facebook news feed, I thought I would post some of my own thoughts on the subject.
I have been aware of Invisible Children since I was in high school, when I read the book "Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier" which moved me to tears.
Now, I want to preface this blog post by saying that I agree Kony is a terrible terrible man, and the things that he has done in Uganda are terrible. But I disagree with a lot of the things that the Invisible Children are doing.
Basically, the premise of the film Kony is, three college kids head off to Sudan to look for a story. Eventually they leave Sudan and work their way into Uganda, and they find some Kony, and maker a MTV style film about what they find. This was in 2003. Now, in 2012, Uganda is not experiencing a significant amount of violence from the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). About a year ago, Kony and his troops were pushed back into the Congo. And Uganda is in the middle of peace talks, and the rebels have laid down their arms. Kony was defeated, and not by some MTV style documentaries, The Uganda People's Defense has beaten them back (albiet by violent means that I do not agree with).
In the case of Kony, Invisible Children is too late. This documentary is old news, watching it will tell you about the atrocities that happened there, but it does not paint a clear picture of what is going on in Uganda today.
While I do agree that the Invisible Children do have good intentions at heart, I am still against their campaign for many reasons. Invisible Children is a controversial non-profit organization, that has been repeatedly condemned. As a registered non profit, anyone can go in and look at their finances. Last year, they spent almost 9 million dollars, and only 32 percent went to direct services, and most of it went to staff salaries, travel, transportation, and film production (Kony 2012 is their 12th film). Charity Navigators rates their accountability at a 2 out of 4 stars.
Also, the group is in favor of direct, violent, military intervention, and their money supports the Ugandan Government's Arm, and other military forces. But back to the money, the bulk of their spending is not on supporting African Militias, but on awareness and film making, which can be great, except for the fact that the Foreign Affairs has stated that the "Invisible Children (among others) 'manipulates facts for strategic purposes, exaggerating the scale of the LRA abductions and murders and emphasizing the LRA's use of innocent children as soldiers and portraying Kony, a brutal man, to be sure as uniquely awful"
I have been aware of Invisible Children since I was in high school, when I read the book "Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier" which moved me to tears.
Now, I want to preface this blog post by saying that I agree Kony is a terrible terrible man, and the things that he has done in Uganda are terrible. But I disagree with a lot of the things that the Invisible Children are doing.
Basically, the premise of the film Kony is, three college kids head off to Sudan to look for a story. Eventually they leave Sudan and work their way into Uganda, and they find some Kony, and maker a MTV style film about what they find. This was in 2003. Now, in 2012, Uganda is not experiencing a significant amount of violence from the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). About a year ago, Kony and his troops were pushed back into the Congo. And Uganda is in the middle of peace talks, and the rebels have laid down their arms. Kony was defeated, and not by some MTV style documentaries, The Uganda People's Defense has beaten them back (albiet by violent means that I do not agree with).
In the case of Kony, Invisible Children is too late. This documentary is old news, watching it will tell you about the atrocities that happened there, but it does not paint a clear picture of what is going on in Uganda today.
While I do agree that the Invisible Children do have good intentions at heart, I am still against their campaign for many reasons. Invisible Children is a controversial non-profit organization, that has been repeatedly condemned. As a registered non profit, anyone can go in and look at their finances. Last year, they spent almost 9 million dollars, and only 32 percent went to direct services, and most of it went to staff salaries, travel, transportation, and film production (Kony 2012 is their 12th film). Charity Navigators rates their accountability at a 2 out of 4 stars.
Also, the group is in favor of direct, violent, military intervention, and their money supports the Ugandan Government's Arm, and other military forces. But back to the money, the bulk of their spending is not on supporting African Militias, but on awareness and film making, which can be great, except for the fact that the Foreign Affairs has stated that the "Invisible Children (among others) 'manipulates facts for strategic purposes, exaggerating the scale of the LRA abductions and murders and emphasizing the LRA's use of innocent children as soldiers and portraying Kony, a brutal man, to be sure as uniquely awful"
The US has been involved in stopping Kony for years, the US African Command has sent multiple missions to capture or kill Kony for years (although I do not agree with the violence of the US military), we have been trying to stop him for years. They have repeatedly failed, and each time a ferocious response has followed and an intense slaughter. This is what happens when you try to take out a man who uses children as humans shields, and this needs to be minimized as much as possible. Yet, for some reason, Invisible Children supports Military Intervention (More info here)
Now, military intervention may or may not be the right idea, depending on your views. I am against military intervention. But people supporting Kony 2012, probably do not realize that they are supporting the Ugandan Military, who themselves are raping and looting as well. Now some people know this, and still support the group, and I have to respect their opinion, but I feel like many people do not know this.
Now the awareness about Kony is good, but this is a extremely complicated problem, and it cannot be solved by hanging up posters, changing your profile picture, or sharing the video on your FB/Twitter/Tumblr page. Now, I don't have the perfect solution, on how to solve this, but I don't support Kony 2012 just because it is something. Doing something just because it's something is not always the best idea.
Now, I encourage everyone to write to whoever they want to, and if you want to tweet and post about Kony, but lets keep this all about Kony, and not about Invisible Children.
Sunday, March 4, 2012
Hello Everyone.
I know it has been an insanely long time since I have last updated this thing, so I thought I would give a brief overview of my life in the past few months.
Right after the Blue Angels Protest last summer, I flew off for a semester abroad in Rome, which meant that I was absent from the activism scene in Maine for a few months. Although I followed the Occupy Movement from abroad, it was not the same, and I felt a strong sense of guilt that I was not out there in the streets with my fellow 99 percenters.
Upon my return to Maine, I began my work with Veterans for Peace, and at the annual retreat this February at Point Lookout, I decided to head up the Education Committee that was formed with Rita Clement, where we are working on getting back into the local high schools and middle schools to create an atmosphere of full disclosure around the idea of joining the armed forces.
I also was invited by the fantastic Lisa Savage to speak at the event "Marching Against Fiscal Maddness: Fund Human Needs" which is a press conference that is going to be held in the Hall of Flags in the Maine State House on March 20th. This event is sponsored by the Maine Bring Our War Dollars Home Coalition, and Occupy Maine, two organizations that I have a deep love for. I am looking forward to this event, and I look forward to speaking out against this insanity that is military spending, and the impacts that it is having on higher education.
I promise to be more faithful about updating this thing. And I mean it this time.
I know it has been an insanely long time since I have last updated this thing, so I thought I would give a brief overview of my life in the past few months.
Right after the Blue Angels Protest last summer, I flew off for a semester abroad in Rome, which meant that I was absent from the activism scene in Maine for a few months. Although I followed the Occupy Movement from abroad, it was not the same, and I felt a strong sense of guilt that I was not out there in the streets with my fellow 99 percenters.
Upon my return to Maine, I began my work with Veterans for Peace, and at the annual retreat this February at Point Lookout, I decided to head up the Education Committee that was formed with Rita Clement, where we are working on getting back into the local high schools and middle schools to create an atmosphere of full disclosure around the idea of joining the armed forces.
I also was invited by the fantastic Lisa Savage to speak at the event "Marching Against Fiscal Maddness: Fund Human Needs" which is a press conference that is going to be held in the Hall of Flags in the Maine State House on March 20th. This event is sponsored by the Maine Bring Our War Dollars Home Coalition, and Occupy Maine, two organizations that I have a deep love for. I am looking forward to this event, and I look forward to speaking out against this insanity that is military spending, and the impacts that it is having on higher education.
I promise to be more faithful about updating this thing. And I mean it this time.
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Green Angels
Well my faithful readers, here is another update.
I have spent a great deal of time this summer working with my good friend Tom Sturtevant to plan a protest the presence of the Blue Angels in Brunswick. I am mildly nervous to say the least, as this is the first protest that I have had a hand in planning in within the peace community here in Maine. I am excited though, because I have had counteless arguments with my family this summer over my plans to attend this protest, because they think that the Blue Angels are tradition, and should not be messed with.
My letter to the editor of the Kennebec Journal was published today, which was pretty exciting. I've never had one published before. And my family was also rather impressed which I was happy about, because they never seem to approve of my passions. But my Dad told me that it was well worded.
A copy of the letter is below.
"The Green Angels to Protest the Presence of the Blue Angels"
A group of peace activists dubbed the "green angels" has plans to oppose the Blue Angels air show on Aug. 27 at Cooks Corner in Brunswick.
The protest will call attention to the projected cost of the air shows -- $40 million in 2011 -- and the pollution they cause.
The Midcoast Regional Redevelopment Authority, a quasi-public Maine state agency, is sponsor of the show. The U.S. Navy requires the authority to provide 48,600 gallons of fuel for the weekend show and space for military recruiters.
The Blue Angels used 97,619 barrels, or 4.1 million gallons of fuel, in 2010 with a corresponding CO2 emission of 88 million pounds.
The public is invited to join the "green angels" for the event that begins at 10 a.m. and lasts until 1 p.m. Participants are urged to wear green and carry appropriate signs and banners.
The event is sponsored by Maine Veterans for Peace, Bring Our War $$$ Home, and Maine AFSC Program on Youth & Militarism.
Nicole Moreau
Livermore Falls
Stay tuned for pictures and an update sometime soon about Saturday
I have spent a great deal of time this summer working with my good friend Tom Sturtevant to plan a protest the presence of the Blue Angels in Brunswick. I am mildly nervous to say the least, as this is the first protest that I have had a hand in planning in within the peace community here in Maine. I am excited though, because I have had counteless arguments with my family this summer over my plans to attend this protest, because they think that the Blue Angels are tradition, and should not be messed with.
My letter to the editor of the Kennebec Journal was published today, which was pretty exciting. I've never had one published before. And my family was also rather impressed which I was happy about, because they never seem to approve of my passions. But my Dad told me that it was well worded.
A copy of the letter is below.
"The Green Angels to Protest the Presence of the Blue Angels"
A group of peace activists dubbed the "green angels" has plans to oppose the Blue Angels air show on Aug. 27 at Cooks Corner in Brunswick.
The protest will call attention to the projected cost of the air shows -- $40 million in 2011 -- and the pollution they cause.
The Midcoast Regional Redevelopment Authority, a quasi-public Maine state agency, is sponsor of the show. The U.S. Navy requires the authority to provide 48,600 gallons of fuel for the weekend show and space for military recruiters.
The Blue Angels used 97,619 barrels, or 4.1 million gallons of fuel, in 2010 with a corresponding CO2 emission of 88 million pounds.
The public is invited to join the "green angels" for the event that begins at 10 a.m. and lasts until 1 p.m. Participants are urged to wear green and carry appropriate signs and banners.
The event is sponsored by Maine Veterans for Peace, Bring Our War $$$ Home, and Maine AFSC Program on Youth & Militarism.
Nicole Moreau
Livermore Falls
Stay tuned for pictures and an update sometime soon about Saturday
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Global Network
Well I promised my faithful followers a blog update on my kickass time at the Global Network Conference-- so here it is.
Friday, I woke up at 4:30 am with Mark Roman and Lisa Savage, where were loaded up the car, and headed down to Portland. There we dropped Lisa off at the bus station, where she was heading down to Boston to catch a flight to go to the Mayor's Conference. That was at 7 am. Then Mark and I began our road trip down to North Andover Mass. We arrived at the Church where the first part of the conference was being held at 10, and we actually beat the head organizer there.
Once Bruce, Mary Beth, and tons of other awesome activists from all over the world showed up, I sat down and started checking people in. I the morning, from about 11 to 2, checking people in, socializing, helping set up, and doing pretty much whatever Bruce needed. Then at about 3, we headed out to Raytheon where we were going to vigil for about an hour and a half. Of course, after the entire day being nice and sunny, it became immediately overcast (I of course was worried because I neglected to bring any rain gear). But once we arrived there, the sun came back out, and I walked away with a sunburn. I spent a great deal of the vigil taking some pictures. Like the ones below.
Friday, I woke up at 4:30 am with Mark Roman and Lisa Savage, where were loaded up the car, and headed down to Portland. There we dropped Lisa off at the bus station, where she was heading down to Boston to catch a flight to go to the Mayor's Conference. That was at 7 am. Then Mark and I began our road trip down to North Andover Mass. We arrived at the Church where the first part of the conference was being held at 10, and we actually beat the head organizer there.
Once Bruce, Mary Beth, and tons of other awesome activists from all over the world showed up, I sat down and started checking people in. I the morning, from about 11 to 2, checking people in, socializing, helping set up, and doing pretty much whatever Bruce needed. Then at about 3, we headed out to Raytheon where we were going to vigil for about an hour and a half. Of course, after the entire day being nice and sunny, it became immediately overcast (I of course was worried because I neglected to bring any rain gear). But once we arrived there, the sun came back out, and I walked away with a sunburn. I spent a great deal of the vigil taking some pictures. Like the ones below.
Mark Roman, and several other activists on the sidewalk right outside the gate.
Starr Gillmartin, from Maine, representing the Bring Our War Dollars Home Campaign
Some minor trespassing by Bruce, and another member of the Global Network to snag this awesome shot.
My friend Vanessa Lynch, and Manashi from India.
Some awesome people who were there before we got there. The man on the right was vigiling here for the first time.
Around 4:30 we circled up, and began talking about the implications of Raytheon, and we had a surprise performance from Tetsu Kitagawa, who is apparently the Bob Dylan of Japan. He had a concert Saturday night, and he was phenomenal. After the vigil, we headed back to the church for dinner, and for more speakers. The highlight of the evening was Arthur, who has been vigiling outside of Raytheon for 20 years.
We had this kickass carrot cake for dessert as well.
After a fun evening of talking, hanging out, listening to speakers and sing-a-longs, we all split up to go to our respective home stays for the night.
Saturday
On Saturday I was up at 7, along with Mark and Brian (our host) where we talked over breakfast for about an hour before we had to head over to Merrimac College for the day's conference. We had to be there at 8, on account of me agreeing to work the registration table. While I was there, I got to meet the legendary Francis Crowe.
The opening remarks for the conference began around 9, and then there were two plenery sessions before lunch. Everyone who spoke was informative, and I learned a great deal about the implications of Raytheon, and its installations all over the world, along with more about what is happening on Jeju Island, and just about the militarization of space, and nuclear weapons as well.
Lunch was at 1, and everyone was ready to eat. I spent some time with Starr Gillmartin of Maine, and we talking about the movement in Maine. She was a fascinating woman, and I hope to see her around at some events in Maine.
After Lunch was the event that I was agonizing over for weeks. The workshop that I was presenting in. I had just finished my speech a couple hours prior. And I am happy to report that Vanessa, Manashi and I were a hit. We had a sizeable crowd at both of our sessions, and everyone was full of questions for us, our experiences within the movement, and the topic of how to get young people into the movement was heavily discussed. I think that people do not realize that we are living in a different time now, and that there is a major lack of information about the movement in mainstream media, and that the information is not there. And this coupled with the fact that there is not a major presence of the peace movement in the US today. I know that there are people who vigil on street corners, and getting arrested in DC, but I feel as though if people want to get college students, they need to have a presence here on campus. Like I have said before, I would not be in the peace movement without the influence of Kristina Wolff.
After the two workshop sessions, it was time to head to the student center for a group picture, and then to head over to the church. Mark, Vanessa and I arrived an hour late, due to us getting disastrously turned around after we split off from Bruce to get gas. Once we arrived, one of the monks, and one of the nuns from Nipponzan Myohoji were there, and it was wonderful to see them again. After a wonderful dinner, and the presentation of the Global Network awards, one of which was presented to Bruce, we headed over to the church for the concert.
There Pat Scanlon, and two of his friends, all of which are members of the Smedly Butler Brigade out of Boston. They performed for about half an hour, and then Tetsu Kitagawa performed some songs, and even though he performed in Japanese, he was a phenomenal performer, and with his last song being "We Shall Overcome" it was a wonderful way to end the conference.
You can see more of my pictures from the weekend here.
But thank you for reading, and I'll try not to go so long without updating again
<3
Sunday, June 19, 2011
Some Pictures from my weekend with the Global Network
Vanessa, Dud, Manashi and I in between workshops We were pretty awesome if I say so myself
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| The majority of the conference participants |
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| Me, Manashi, Dud, Tom and Vanessa, talking about our Student Activism Workshop |
Bruce-- apparently in this picture he was giving directions to the bathrooms. But I wanted to post a picture of him, because he kicks ass, and he has been a major inspiration to me.
I'll be sure to post some thoughts on the conference tomorrow--- hopefully atleast.
PS-- I stole all of these pictures from Bruce's Blog-- space4peace.blogspot.com, because I don't have any on my computer yet.
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Monday, April 4, 2011
Bring Our War Dollars Home.
So in my resolution to try and be a better blogger, here it goes. I'm going to start with a quote by one of my favorite people
A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., 1967
That quote was true when he said it in 1967, and it is still true today. I only wish that our elected officials would listen to King, and re-allocate our war spending to fund the domestic needs of the country.
I spent quite a bit of time this weekend writing a speech for the Bring Our War Dollars Home Press conference that took place in Augusta today.
I was in charge of talking about the impacts of war spending on financial aid, and how war spending is devastating higher education. I'll enclose my speech eventually.
But I when I work up this morning at 8 am, trying not to freak out, and it worked rather well until I got to Augusta. On the elevator ride up to the Hall of Flags, I noticed that I left my speech in the car, which meant that I had a freak out for approximately 30 seconds before TJ dashed off to go get it for me.
The press conference went well. Bruce said that there was about 200 people there, and then more people showed up for the labor rally that was taking place after. There was also a draw-in, which seemed to be overshadowed by the proceedings going on in the front of the room, but there were several fantastic artists there, including William Hessian and Kenny Cole. Some wonderful work was created today, along with other pieces that were created at other draw-a-thons.
Lisa Savage, of Code Pink Maine, talked about how the 3.4 billion dollars that that Maine has spent on the war since its beginning would be enough to provide every incoming Freshman in the UMS System, with full tuition for 21 years. To me, this seems like a good way to spend all of that money that is being used to destroy another country.
Perhaps my favorite moment of the day was when Tom Sturtevant tried to introduce me to Richard again, who is one of the VFP members that I have formed a close bond with.
Although I did not create any art today, it was wonderful to be around such creative spirit, and besides, if all goes according to plan, I will have the opportunity to create art on Sunday at Peace, Love and Musicfest.
Well I am completely exhausted, and am having a hard time forming coherent thoughts, so I will try to update this tomorrow but no promises.
A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., 1967
That quote was true when he said it in 1967, and it is still true today. I only wish that our elected officials would listen to King, and re-allocate our war spending to fund the domestic needs of the country.
I spent quite a bit of time this weekend writing a speech for the Bring Our War Dollars Home Press conference that took place in Augusta today.
I was in charge of talking about the impacts of war spending on financial aid, and how war spending is devastating higher education. I'll enclose my speech eventually.
But I when I work up this morning at 8 am, trying not to freak out, and it worked rather well until I got to Augusta. On the elevator ride up to the Hall of Flags, I noticed that I left my speech in the car, which meant that I had a freak out for approximately 30 seconds before TJ dashed off to go get it for me.
The press conference went well. Bruce said that there was about 200 people there, and then more people showed up for the labor rally that was taking place after. There was also a draw-in, which seemed to be overshadowed by the proceedings going on in the front of the room, but there were several fantastic artists there, including William Hessian and Kenny Cole. Some wonderful work was created today, along with other pieces that were created at other draw-a-thons.
Lisa Savage, of Code Pink Maine, talked about how the 3.4 billion dollars that that Maine has spent on the war since its beginning would be enough to provide every incoming Freshman in the UMS System, with full tuition for 21 years. To me, this seems like a good way to spend all of that money that is being used to destroy another country.
Perhaps my favorite moment of the day was when Tom Sturtevant tried to introduce me to Richard again, who is one of the VFP members that I have formed a close bond with.
Although I did not create any art today, it was wonderful to be around such creative spirit, and besides, if all goes according to plan, I will have the opportunity to create art on Sunday at Peace, Love and Musicfest.
Well I am completely exhausted, and am having a hard time forming coherent thoughts, so I will try to update this tomorrow but no promises.
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Hey Obama Listen to Me, Bradley Manning must be set free.
The bus that Lisa and I were on was the last bus to leave Union Station, so we were the last people to get there, and everyone was incredibly anxious to get off the bus.
Daniel Ellsberg was here, and so was Ann Wright, and I recognized a bunch of other people from the protest the day before, and some people from the convention this summer.
At the beginning there were people pacing up and down the road with signs getting people’s attention.
When I got there, I learned just how intense Code Pink is about their protesting, and their costumes. They were putting people into Prison Costumes, and Guantanamo costumes, and then it seemed like we took pictures forever, but in reality, I’m sure it was only about 15 or 20 minutes. They also had tons of props, they were handing out signs, pink whistles, and they even had a “prison” for us to stand behind during the march, and for some of the pictures.
Eventually Lisa stripped down to her “Bradley Manning” suit which consisted of pale pink leggings and shirt, and a pair of white undies.
Someone walked by, and then left, and one of the code pink ladies said “This is important you need to stay here and learn”
Someone yelled traitor, and someone yelled “I would do this for you”
There were so many people taking drive by photos.
There was a camera man and a reporter standing by the road asking people what they thought about Bradley Manning, then someone drove by and told us off, and the two camera men yelled “let’s go ask him” and then took off.
Two men told me I wasn’t Bradley Manning because I was wearing clothes. Suggested that we get a bunch of people in their underwear with the “I am Bradley Manning” signs.
There were two men in Guantanamo suits sitting on the side of the road with their heads covered
The protest started off very casual, and stayed so for the first couple of hours, and then it got intense once the march began.
People went through the barriers after Vets weren’t allowed to put flowers on the Iwo Jima memorial. People were yelling and moving, and it was super intense.
Ann Wright and Daniel Ellsberg were the people who really started the sit in. They were under a whistle blower torture zone sign that they ended up sitting under. From what I understand, at first we were told that we would all be able to place a flower on the Iwo Jima memorial, and then it was knocked down to a delegation of five, and then they were told they could just toss the flowers over the fence. So they placed them down, and then sat down in the middle of the road.
There was one point in time where the protesters and the riot police met in the middle of the street, and the swat guys started pushing them back, with what seemed to me, unnecessary force.
There were at least 50 to 60 cops, about half of them had riot shields, some were mounted, some were completely covered and had big guns, and then there were some other ones. Also, there were some “undercover”
People were putting Courage to Resist stickers on the riot shields. One cop got mad, and kind moved his shield when someone tried to put hers on there, and almost hit her in the face.
There were two undercover cops who were completely obvious
The song that most people were singing was “We Shall Not be Moved”
Some of the major chants, that were lead by a marine who I’m guessing was about 5 years older than me, were
“Hey Obama listen to me, Bradley Manning must be free”
“Hey Obama listen to me, Torturing Bradley is not ok”
“Show me what a police state looks like”
“Show me what a democracy looks like”
“whose streets? Our streets!”
It seemed like there was quite a bit of press there for the entire thing. Although I am sure that most of it was alternative press, but I did end up on CNN
I also think someone was live-streaming with their computer, they had it open with a webcam, which made me concerned for their computer because there was a great deal of movement going on for
For me the protest was extremely emotional, knowing that he was there. Lisa and I thought that the people in charge of Quantico figured out just how close people had to be for Bradley to hear us, and then wouldn’t let us beyond that point. Lisa and I had to leave around 4 to go back into the city, and I did not want to leave everyone, but I was comforted by the fact there were several civil disobedience “vets” there that knew what to do.
It seemed as though for the last hour or so of the protest, the whistles that we had were being blown constantly, and I remember getting back on the bus with a major headache, and just feeling completely overwhelmed by what I had experienced.
Later that evening, when I went to upload all of my pictures of the day, when facebook took me to the page where it gives you the option to tag your friends, all of the pictures that facebook wanted me to tag where of his face, which I felt was interesting, and hilarious.
Friday, March 25, 2011
No Justice, No Peace, US out of the Middle East
I know that I am the worst at updating this, but here are some snippets of my write up about Saturday's protest
Spring Lobby Weekend, Saturday
Arriving at 11:30 am, everyone is gathered in the park across the street from the White House, and the Code Pink Ladies are there singing a song on stage. Jade and I split up, and I ran into Mark and Bruce, where we chatted about last night, and what was going to go today.
After about half an hour, I walked around snapping some pictures, and the usual types of people were there. I saw some people from Courage to Resist, some people from World Can’t Wait, and tons of VFP and IVAW members.
Eventually Mark found me, and we went to the sidewalk in front of the White House, and unfurled the Bring Our War $$ Home banner, and everyone was stopping to take pictures of us, and one woman, probably about my age, even wanted to get her picture taken with us, which I thought was super interesting.
There were quite a few younger people there, there were these two teenagers sitting in front of the stage for the speakers, and they painted their fingers purple for when they would flash the peace sign. Daniel Ellsberg spoke, which was interesting, and he talked about Bradley Manning and how someday he would be revered as much as DE is now.
Chris Hedges talked about the moral compass of Christianity and how a Christian soldier is damned, not for killing someone, but for sleeping with a prostitute, and how that is so wrong. He also talk about
Then the march around the square started, which was an interesting experience, it seemed like quite a few of the cars who were parked along the side of the street that we were marching on were irritated with us because they had to wait. While we were walking along the backside of the park, someone drove by with a Wikileaks van, and tons of people ran up to try and get their picture taken with it, including quite a few of the Code Pink ladies. The van was pretty awesome, and on the back it said Free Bradley Manning. There was one guy from Texas, who cut in front of us, and said that he wasn’t going to wait for all of us to pass before he could pull out. I was surprised he didn’t hit any of us.
When we got back for the protest part, Jade and I got out of the line of people who were going to be behind the barricade, and we were in the front row, snapping pictures like crazy, when someone told me to just climb over, and that I would be fine as long as I listened for the warnings, so I got up on the wall with Mark and Bruce and it was pretty awesome. They watched out for me, and made sure that I left at the right time to make sure that I wouldn’t be arrested. So I was on the white house wall for probably 15 or 20 minutes yelling and chanting, and it was AWESOME. I eventually got down after warning number two, and found Jade where we managed to maneuver ourselves into a nice front row seat to the arrests that were beginning to take place. There were more people who were there as supporters, and quite a few of them were younger people, and they had drums, and tons of chants. The most memorable ones were
· Money for school and education, not war and occupation
· Libya is the new Iraq, what do we do? Fight back
· No Justice, No peace, US out of the Middle East
The first person that they arrested was a middle aged woman, and when they brought her behind their white screening vans, she fell on the ground, and was screaming for ten minutes, and it was terrifying, because we had no idea what was happening to her. Then all of a sudden, one of the men to the left of us, about ten feet down, kicked some of the barriers up, and I almost had a panic attack at the thought of the crowd rushing forward. But luckily that did not happen, and the police came up to him, and told him that if he did it again that he would be arrested, and he did not do it again thankfully.
The crowd began chanting “You should be ashamed” after about a minute of the woman screaming, and there was one of the police officers, it was the younger African-American one stood there, subtly nodding his head at us, which was interesting, because all of the other 20 or 25 cops that were there were giving us dirty looks, and one of the woman on the horses was even texting for most of the time (Which goes to show that they know that they don't have to worry about us going crazy). At one point, two of the younger male cops who were in the arrest area, got right up in the faces of one guy, and their supervisor I guess had to come and tell them to back off. It was clear that they were super uncomfortable with us and with our presence there because we did not let up on them at all.
Every time someone was arrested, there was tons of cheering of support, we were super loud for Bruce, Mark and Lisa
One woman yelled “Don’t’ arrest Santa Claus” (Sadly this was not in reference in to Bruce)
The protest was an interesting atmosphere, it was tense at times, fun and lighthearted at others, but it was an amazing experience that I will never forget.
I'll update soon about the Bradley Manning Rally I also attended.
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Really America? I thought you were a bit better than this.
Because it is one am and I apparently lack the ability to sleep like any normal human being, here I am, updating my blog, and working on proofreading some interviews for my research project that I'm working on with Kristina and Dovey.
I went to a meeting on Saturday with Lisa about the economic rights for Mainers, in this time where people are forced to choose between putting food on the table, and paying rent. Or in the case of my town, paying their mortgages.
But when I got home, I was shocked to hear about the assassination attempt on Gabby Giffords and then to see the photo on Sarah Palin's facebook page where people who agreed with Obama's healthcare bill were "targeted" in crosshares of some form of a weapon. This disgusted me. Have we honestly stooped so low as a country that we are willing to simply shoot someone who we disagree with? And to have political figures, such as Sarah Palin be supporting a graphic such as the one below...
makes me even more concerned than I already am for the future of our country. I honestly do not know even where to start on this subject, of Sarah Palin, the dangerously violent political climate, which can clearly be attributed to militarism, and how our elected officials turn to violence often when other countries disagree with us, which we then hear about in the media, which is a major tool of socialization, and people often think that violence is a legitimate form of problem solving, when in reality, this man's actions did not solve anything, it simply ended with six people dead, including a judge, and a nine year old girl, and many other people wounded in critical condition.
Although this event is incredibly tragic, perhaps it will spark something in the people of the United States, and they will realize that we are becoming incredibly polarized as a nation,and will work to become united, because I know people can work together while still disagreeing on many topics. Due to the polarization, people are turning to violence and hatred to get their ideas across, and this is something that we know does not work.
If this young man (whose name I cannot even recall) had turned his thoughts into a constructive letter to Mrs. Giffords, or even spoke to her at her congress on your corner event she was having, he would have been closer to achieving some form of social change.
I went to a meeting on Saturday with Lisa about the economic rights for Mainers, in this time where people are forced to choose between putting food on the table, and paying rent. Or in the case of my town, paying their mortgages.
But when I got home, I was shocked to hear about the assassination attempt on Gabby Giffords and then to see the photo on Sarah Palin's facebook page where people who agreed with Obama's healthcare bill were "targeted" in crosshares of some form of a weapon. This disgusted me. Have we honestly stooped so low as a country that we are willing to simply shoot someone who we disagree with? And to have political figures, such as Sarah Palin be supporting a graphic such as the one below...
makes me even more concerned than I already am for the future of our country. I honestly do not know even where to start on this subject, of Sarah Palin, the dangerously violent political climate, which can clearly be attributed to militarism, and how our elected officials turn to violence often when other countries disagree with us, which we then hear about in the media, which is a major tool of socialization, and people often think that violence is a legitimate form of problem solving, when in reality, this man's actions did not solve anything, it simply ended with six people dead, including a judge, and a nine year old girl, and many other people wounded in critical condition.
Although this event is incredibly tragic, perhaps it will spark something in the people of the United States, and they will realize that we are becoming incredibly polarized as a nation,and will work to become united, because I know people can work together while still disagreeing on many topics. Due to the polarization, people are turning to violence and hatred to get their ideas across, and this is something that we know does not work.
If this young man (whose name I cannot even recall) had turned his thoughts into a constructive letter to Mrs. Giffords, or even spoke to her at her congress on your corner event she was having, he would have been closer to achieving some form of social change.
Sunday, December 19, 2010
Being Home...
When I finally pulled in to my driveway Wednesday evening, I was incredibly happy to be home. But now that I have been home for a couple days, I can feel my soul starting to wither away.
Last night at dinner, my mom and dad were talking about how all of the people who are on the various state funded systems abuse the system. They completely refuse to acknowledge the reasons behind why people need to abuse the systems, and that only about ten percent of people abuse the system, it just happens that we only hear about that ten percent of the population -- for example, a man in who lives in one of the Carolinas, sent California a check to repay the state the money that he received in unemployment benefits, plus interest. When I told my Dad this, the first thing that he assumed is that the man somehow got caught cheating the system. Yet there was nothing about him in my local paper, even though it happened the same day that these other people were caught.
They also do not look at the culture of the United States. They don't realize that we live in a culture that promotes laziness, and exploitation. Look at our foreign policy, where we send our jobs overseas to exploit foreign labor sources, simply because we do not want to pay any more than we have to for a given product. But when I explain this to my family, I am clearly the person who knows nothing, even though I spend my days studying how society impacts people.
My entire family is also against the DREAM act, because they hate illegal immigrants because they apparently take our jobs (even though the jobs that these immigrants work are ones that no one in my family would ever even consider working, aka working in the fields for 14 hours a day, or working in US sweatshops), and they also hate them because they do not pay taxes. But this act would allow minors who came to this country illegally to be citizens after the fulfill certain requirements, such as graduating high school, and then graduating from a 4 year university, or serving two years in the armed forces (although I wholly disagree that the armed forces should be part of the requirement for them to become citizens, because we do not need to exploit anymore innocent people to join our war machine), the fact that these people would be given a chance to attend college, and make their lives better and pull themselves up by the bootstraps, become American citizens, is an excellent idea, because then they will be taxpaying citizens (something I thought would make my parents happy) and besides that, the pulling yourself up by the bootstraps idea is totally the American Dream (even though I know that it totally does not exist in the US, people generally do not change classes here, only enough people make it so that people actually think that the American Dream does still exist).
Needless to say,
it is going to be a long month here at home.
Last night at dinner, my mom and dad were talking about how all of the people who are on the various state funded systems abuse the system. They completely refuse to acknowledge the reasons behind why people need to abuse the systems, and that only about ten percent of people abuse the system, it just happens that we only hear about that ten percent of the population -- for example, a man in who lives in one of the Carolinas, sent California a check to repay the state the money that he received in unemployment benefits, plus interest. When I told my Dad this, the first thing that he assumed is that the man somehow got caught cheating the system. Yet there was nothing about him in my local paper, even though it happened the same day that these other people were caught.
They also do not look at the culture of the United States. They don't realize that we live in a culture that promotes laziness, and exploitation. Look at our foreign policy, where we send our jobs overseas to exploit foreign labor sources, simply because we do not want to pay any more than we have to for a given product. But when I explain this to my family, I am clearly the person who knows nothing, even though I spend my days studying how society impacts people.
My entire family is also against the DREAM act, because they hate illegal immigrants because they apparently take our jobs (even though the jobs that these immigrants work are ones that no one in my family would ever even consider working, aka working in the fields for 14 hours a day, or working in US sweatshops), and they also hate them because they do not pay taxes. But this act would allow minors who came to this country illegally to be citizens after the fulfill certain requirements, such as graduating high school, and then graduating from a 4 year university, or serving two years in the armed forces (although I wholly disagree that the armed forces should be part of the requirement for them to become citizens, because we do not need to exploit anymore innocent people to join our war machine), the fact that these people would be given a chance to attend college, and make their lives better and pull themselves up by the bootstraps, become American citizens, is an excellent idea, because then they will be taxpaying citizens (something I thought would make my parents happy) and besides that, the pulling yourself up by the bootstraps idea is totally the American Dream (even though I know that it totally does not exist in the US, people generally do not change classes here, only enough people make it so that people actually think that the American Dream does still exist).
Needless to say,
it is going to be a long month here at home.
Saturday, December 18, 2010
the following entry has been taken from my friend Lisa Savage's blog, and I feel like everyone needs to read it and truly think about what she is saying.
the following entry has been taken from my friend Lisa Savage's blog, and I feel like everyone needs to read it and truly think about what she is saying.
See no evil, hear nothing but NPR, say Merry Xmas!
By Lisa Savage, of Code Pink
'Tis the season of holiday parties, a chance to see people and relax a bit. Mark and I don't get invited to old friends' dinner parties much anymore; no one would ever say why, but I imagine it's because people are afraid we will talk about politics and bum them out. We did get invited to a neighborhood Christmas party last week, and went and had a good time. Tonight we will drive about an hour to attend the annual holiday gathering of a peace and justice group in the western Maine mountains. I'm sure it will be a very different crowd.
At last week's party I wore what my husband affectionately described as "your Bradley Manning schoolgirl look." I put a festive red cardigan over my Free Bradley t-shirt, and then asked myself what a high school kid would wear with such an ensemble (short skirt over leggings plus boots). I love my Bradley Manning t-shirt but don't get to wear it much. It's too cold outside, and I don't dare bring political messaging to my place of work.
Only one person remarked on my shirt, asking me about its cool graphics. When I said it was Bradley Manning he replied, "Who's that?" I said it was the person who supplied WikiLeaks with the info in the first place. Still no recognition. This person has advanced degrees and teaches at a local college. "I am sorry I asked, please stop. I have been depressed lately," he told me. Wow.
I was careful not to bring up politics because NOBODY WANTS TO TALK ABOUT IT! When they ask what I have been up to lately, they do not really want me to tell them. I talked about the weather, holiday plans, people's health, family news, and anything else but. Old friends we have kind of lost touch with avoid us because they are afraid we do not know how to act politely at parties anymore. I was determined to prove them wrong. But I suppose I blew it in advance by wearing my t-shirt.
Anyway, I was in a discussion about the weather for upcoming holiday travel with two people I have known for years. They were wondering if it was snowing in Washington DC that day and I said that it was because I had just seen a video of a snowy scene where "hundreds of people got arrested today for chaining themselves to the White House fence."
The two partygoers turned away from me in unison, as if we were in a dance that had been rehearsed.
Which I suppose we were.
Most of our these local friends started out standing on the bridge with us in '03, '04, maybe '05. Then a lot of people quit coming. I have never challenged anyone on this or asked them to defend their decision, but a ton of them have rushed up to me in the produce department or at the post office to apologize guiltily, mostly explaining either that they were too busy or stopped because "it didn't make any difference -- nothing changed." (The general public in the U.S. has the historical awareness and political sense of very young children.)
Over the years many, many people have thanked Mark and me for continuing to publicly vigil for peace, and to protest the wars. I think the message is: Keep it on the bridge where it belongs, but don't bring it to our parties.
Almost all of these people do charitable works, and a lot of them happen to be artists. Either they do not consider political organizing fun, inspiring, and exciting -- or it's too scary. Maybe some combination of the two.
Maybe there is a lot of guilt for continuing to live well while children in Afghanistan starve and freeze in between air strikes we are financing.
I can't be sure about any of that, but I am pretty sure about this: any literate person with Internet acces who cannot identify Bradley Manning is in a willful state of ignorance.
Bliss? I doubt it.
Saturday, December 11, 2010
Saturday, December 4, 2010
Bring Our War Dollars Home planning meeting, and BIW Vigil
Hey everyone.
Here's another update on the shennanigans that I've been up too.
I got an email from my friend Bruce Gagnon when I got back to school from Thanksgiving break, inviting me to go down with my friend Alex to be on his local access tv show called the issue. We talked for half an hour about our feelings on the walk, on our generation, and what is next for us in terms of activism, mainly working on the BOW$H resolution for the town of Farmington. It was an amazing experience, and watch for the link on here, and on my Facebook page soon.
Today, we went to the vigil at BIW, urging them to convert to creating items to help us move towards a sustainable future. It was an interesting experience, its seems as though the men and women driving by were pretty evenly split between being pissed off at us, and supporting us.
We then moved to the Addams-Mellman house, and talked about what was next in terms of the BOW$H campaign.
Some of the highlights that we talked about were
Tom's ideas about doing something at the Blue Angels Air Show in August, raising awareness about military show business and how the taxpayers pay for all of this, and how completely unsustainable they are. There were some great ideas, including us dressing up at the "Green Angels" but this is definitely an event that I am looking forward to participating in.
We are also going to be doing something on Tax Day, which I have been charged with creating an awesome handout to give to people, probably at the post offices around the state. So I will be majorly letting my creative juices flow when I get home for Christmas break.
Alex and I also got a great deal of input on how to pass the resolution in Farmington. We were told to stand at the dump and outside the post office and have our petition and handouts to give to people. And they told us to get to know the politicians before we go into the meeting, so that they know us and they will be less likely to steamroll over us.
Right now, I am completely exhausted, and I realize that I probably forgot some awesome stuff we talked about, so I'm going to end up editing this again tomorrow while I procrastinate on some homework.
So until tomorrow
<3
Here's another update on the shennanigans that I've been up too.
I got an email from my friend Bruce Gagnon when I got back to school from Thanksgiving break, inviting me to go down with my friend Alex to be on his local access tv show called the issue. We talked for half an hour about our feelings on the walk, on our generation, and what is next for us in terms of activism, mainly working on the BOW$H resolution for the town of Farmington. It was an amazing experience, and watch for the link on here, and on my Facebook page soon.
Today, we went to the vigil at BIW, urging them to convert to creating items to help us move towards a sustainable future. It was an interesting experience, its seems as though the men and women driving by were pretty evenly split between being pissed off at us, and supporting us.
We then moved to the Addams-Mellman house, and talked about what was next in terms of the BOW$H campaign.
Some of the highlights that we talked about were
Tom's ideas about doing something at the Blue Angels Air Show in August, raising awareness about military show business and how the taxpayers pay for all of this, and how completely unsustainable they are. There were some great ideas, including us dressing up at the "Green Angels" but this is definitely an event that I am looking forward to participating in.
We are also going to be doing something on Tax Day, which I have been charged with creating an awesome handout to give to people, probably at the post offices around the state. So I will be majorly letting my creative juices flow when I get home for Christmas break.
Alex and I also got a great deal of input on how to pass the resolution in Farmington. We were told to stand at the dump and outside the post office and have our petition and handouts to give to people. And they told us to get to know the politicians before we go into the meeting, so that they know us and they will be less likely to steamroll over us.
Right now, I am completely exhausted, and I realize that I probably forgot some awesome stuff we talked about, so I'm going to end up editing this again tomorrow while I procrastinate on some homework.
So until tomorrow
<3
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Bring Our War Dollars Home.
Last Thursday, PAinT brought two speakers to campus.
Will Hopkins, of VFP, IVAW, and Peace Action NH, and
Lisa Savage of Code Pink
they talked about their stories with activism, and how we as students can get involved.
Along the peace walk, Bruce talked to Alex and I about bringing the Bring Our War Dollars Home resolution to Farmington, and talking with Will and Lisa pushed us over the edge.
Friday, Alex, and my friend TJ and I got together, and started brainstorming ideas on what we needed to do in order to get this resolution off the ground and running smoothly.
Right now I'm working on drafting a resolution, and a petition in time for us to meet with some other people at the Bring Our War Dollars Home planning meeting on the 4th of December. We don't plan on starting pushing the resolution until after break, because we don't want to start it and then leave it again for a few months. So we're going to hit the ground running in the middle of January.
I was supposed to go to a Bring Our War Dollars Home protest in Augusta tomorrow. But as of now, the weather is not looking very promising for me to be able to attend. Which I am kinda bummed about, but I'll cope. There are going to be plenty of chances for activism in my near future, and I can use the time to do some more BOW$H stuff that I need to get done.
expect more updates soon.
<3
Will Hopkins, of VFP, IVAW, and Peace Action NH, and
Lisa Savage of Code Pink
they talked about their stories with activism, and how we as students can get involved.
Along the peace walk, Bruce talked to Alex and I about bringing the Bring Our War Dollars Home resolution to Farmington, and talking with Will and Lisa pushed us over the edge.
Friday, Alex, and my friend TJ and I got together, and started brainstorming ideas on what we needed to do in order to get this resolution off the ground and running smoothly.
Right now I'm working on drafting a resolution, and a petition in time for us to meet with some other people at the Bring Our War Dollars Home planning meeting on the 4th of December. We don't plan on starting pushing the resolution until after break, because we don't want to start it and then leave it again for a few months. So we're going to hit the ground running in the middle of January.
I was supposed to go to a Bring Our War Dollars Home protest in Augusta tomorrow. But as of now, the weather is not looking very promising for me to be able to attend. Which I am kinda bummed about, but I'll cope. There are going to be plenty of chances for activism in my near future, and I can use the time to do some more BOW$H stuff that I need to get done.
expect more updates soon.
<3
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