[Peace-presence] Pledge Ourselves to End This War At All Costs

[Laura Fillmore]

Greetings to you all this fine Sunday:

The Reno A.N.S.W.E.R. van successfully made it to SF and back for 
yesterday's march and action, it was not cancelled, it was not 
insignificant, and it did happen.  We went with Union participation, 
African American, Native American, Latina and an elder activist 
representation, a reporter and photographer from the UNR Sagebrush, 
accompanied by several Youth activists/scholars from Reno who continue 
to keep up the fight.  We didn't break even, but it was well worth it 
to me...I'll carry that bill through with great pride and am thankful 
to those who were able to contribute as well.  We participated in the 
mass die-in, which looked very much like direct action to me.  I hated 
to use the fossil fuel to get there, but wouldn't trade the experience 
of marching with 30,000-50,000 people for anything...it was, in a word, 
awesome.

There was a sense of unity and the rawness of participation from 
military families who have lost loved ones.  I tried to document our 
viewpoint on camera.  I would (will) love to curate an exhibition of 
photos between myself and the young man from the Sagebrush...as well as 
a regal African American photographer who offered to share those he 
took of us there.     There was a vigil most folks missed (we had 
returned to City Hall for the van) with a giant RED dove of peace 
flowing over the faith community members circled up there.  They 
released several crates of white doves at the conclusion of their 
prayers...it must have been a beautiful sight (we were down in the 
bowels of the city, looking for our van :)

There were radical cheerleaders much like our own beloved troupe, as 
well as a huge contingent from women dedicated to Code Pink.  A huge 
contingent of Native Americans, with Dennis Banks, announced the start 
of another Longest Walk across country.  An organizer says they'll go 
through Arizona to the south this time, (they'll not be up here), but 
they were the first to speak at the rally, a place of honor before the 
crowd--as we should always honor the First Nations People who have 
survived the waves of immigrants to this land over centuries now.

A highlight for me was the beautiful troupe of young women organizing 
in Watsonville (I worked for ACORN to found Channel 25 there...a lot of 
work needs be done with all the folks in that area); they were rapping 
and singing as conscious beings who were extremely aware of the 
downpressure from this government and their responsibility to rise up 
and RESIST.  A highlight for my daughter was Isha's recognizing Alice 
Walker behind us in the line to the portapotty, and Alice's graceful 
thank you to Helen for being young and standing up for what is right in 
these times.  Alice and her partner--a man in a red beret--sat in the 
center of the lawn and seemed to draw the words of the speakers as the 
power it truly truly was as we gathered at Dolores Huerta park at the 
conclusion of the march.  Nobody worried that it took all day.  People 
were cooking, and hawking their literature and viewpoints, and t-shirts 
and the speakers and singers went on and on and on.  The crowd shifted 
but the voices of resistance were clear.

Cindy Sheehan is running for Congress  now.  There were Longshoremen 
and the "real" Clarence Thomas spoke, from the Ironworkers Union (maybe 
he was a Teamster, we marched behind him in an Ironworkers 
jacket)--they are tired of our "national security" dollars targeting 
them.  Clarence called for a national strike by workers on the real 
anniversary of the war this year:  March 19th--real resistance, not 
just marching and singing--hit them in their ever-deeper pockets.  Can 
we follow that call, Reno?  It falls on a Wednesday....

SF ANSWER organized brilliantly, embracing all complexity and all 
partnerships--including the UFPJ Co-chair, who, alongside Richard 
Becker led the rallies on the front and rear end of the march (do you 
guys realize we've had Richard in town speaking to a handful of folks 
at PLAN and nobody really gave him any respect because we are NOT 
unified?) and also the Iranian scholar from SF ANSWER spoke--(Stewart, 
help me out with his name) he also spoke at the conclusion of the march 
Reno ANSWER organized on the anniversary of the war last March...we 
have been in touch with the leaders of the resistance and have ignored 
them here because "our" individual leaders didn't get behind a 
concerted effort.  I think it is grossly sad...a great disservice to 
our constituencies and to knowledge and truth in a more general way.

In terms of relevance to NOW:  There were huge calls for not bombing 
Iran in SF yesterday.  Let's realize that they probably won't do so for 
economic reasons before Christmas--oil is already pushing $100 a barrel 
because of the threats.  Let's not let this administration in their 
lame-duck, last bedraggled days, escalate war on the planet.  Focus, 
folks, we need to realize that they are amp-ing this campaign in 
exactly the same manner as they did before the "shock and awe" over 
Iraq.  And Iran will not fold easily, and their allies will not put up 
with an increase in military occupation in the region.  Cheney's effort 
to fly nuclear weapons to Barksdale to stage a secretive first strike 
was unveiled by military brass who have now been forced to resign...why 
did they call the NYTimes?  I personally will be forever grateful.  Do 
not believe we know the whole story at any point in time.  Do not 
believe they will not use weapons of mass destruction against THEIR 
enemies.  And John Auer is right:  this danger far eclipses whatever 
the hell went on 9/11.  Didn't we know then that Bush wouldn't "turn 
the other cheek" and collect the sympathy of diplomacy and compassion 
for America that attack elicited?   Call for his impeachment, but let's 
focus on what he is doing right now.

I remain a mother who refuses to be the enemy of another mother 
anywhere.   Stand with me, please.  Raise your sons to understand their 
own peace.  Speak out in your workplaces.  Become an "influencer".  
Educate.  Resist.  Raise awareness.

SO WHAT SHOULD WE DO AS A COMMUNITY?  WHERE ARE OUR UNIONS HERE?  WHERE 
IS OUR SOLIDARITY?  WHAT IS OUR RESPONSE TO JOHN AUER'S CALL TO ACTION 
AS A FORCE TO BE RECOGNIZED IN NORTHERN NEVADA?  WHERE ARE OUR NUMBERS 
OUT IN FORCE?  WHAT DOES SOLIDARITY MEAN TO YOU?  HOW COME WE CAN'T 
RESIST IN LARGER NUMBERS HERE?  WHAT WILL YOU DO TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE?  
I WANT TO KNOW IF BEING AGAINST THIS WAR MEANS YOU SEND A CALL OUT TO 
YOUR FRIENDS AND FAMILIES AND YOUR EMAIL LISTS.  I WANT TO KNOW IF WE 
HAVE A MOVEMENT IN RENO THAT CAN SIT DOWN AND NEGOTIATE ALL THE 
COMPLEXITY OF DIVERSITY AND DIFFERENCE.

I WANT TO FOLLOW A CALL TO CONSCIENCE.  I WANT DIRECT ACTION AND MASS 
MOBILIZATIONS--AND NOT SINGLE-ISSUE QUIBBLING.  I WANT TO SEE THE 
SIMILARITY IN OUR WORKS ACROSS THE BOARDS, AND I WANT US TO REALIZE 
THAT IF WE DON'T UNITE HERE WE WILL SUFFER HUGE CONSEQUENCES WHEN THE 
REAL DOWN-PRESSURE KICKS IN.

There is little contemporary arts scene left in Baghdad--only an 
occasional Brechtian play or the exiled artists' works exhibited abroad 
speaks to their shredded community.  There are fewer and fewer family 
farmers distributing foods to others.  There is no infrastructure for 
community.  No clean water left to hold hearings over.  No legislative 
process.  Ecology?  Land acquisition and renewal?  Indigenous rights?  
Human rights?  Freedom?    Get real--our government has left 
radioactivity on their soils since Gulf Wars I-II, fractured Kurdish 
peace, perpetrated torture on citizens after incarcerating them (when 
we're not raiding cities and killing civilians outright).
WE ignored our international heritage in the National Museum of Iraq, 
and the archeology of the birth of walled gardens and paradise...still 
ongoing daily during the current American War on Iraq.  There is only 
mass exodus of intellectuals and the middle class and those who remain 
are bent on survival and the sorting out of revenge.  Hunger, poverty, 
decimation.  Your constituency cares about this, or they might if only 
you will as their leaders.  Your students and your church members do.  
Help them to understand how all of our work here in Reno is related to 
our government's war on the Iraqi people, please.

Think what that would be like here, and realize that this is all of our 
responsibility.  If one is suffering, so are we all.

Resistance should not just be screaming in front of the Federal 
Building by a handful who don't know how to talk to the rest of us 
about their viewpoints.  It shouldn't be holding candles to an elephant 
gun.   It ain't gonna happen in a public television station alone.  All 
of those things beat nothing, but they are not enough.  It SHOULD be 
massive, and it should be UNIFIED, and it should address the issues of 
both the war abroad and the war at home--it MUST be controlled 
democratically, and not by the very few loudest critics of the rest of 
us.  I know we're all tired, that its been 5 whole years.  I know we 
have lots to do.  I witness my own fatigue.  I witness my own desire to 
create a more diverse community in Reno, and I want to say that we are 
on a huge precipice and that if we fail it is a long way down to the 
canyons that will separate our communities and our ability to do the 
real work we are called to do.

It is no mystery that the extra homeland security monies are being 
turned now on immigrant workers who are being deported by the thousands 
(we don't hear that on tv--1,000 people THIS LAST WEEK deported from 
LA).   And lest we forget--who makes up the community that really did 
mobilize tens of thousands to demonstrate HERE IN RENO during this era? 
  It wasn't the peace community in town, it was those whose survival has 
been called into question--and a beautiful thing it was, frankly, to 
see Virginia closed by 10,000 people.  What moved the end days of the 
American war on Viet Nam?  Can I get a witness to the history of the 
war on the poverty that military war a world away inevitably creates 
here at home?  Can we ask ourselves what has changed and what struggles 
will arise from these times?  Anybody organizing the homeowners losing 
their homes right now?  That is a lot of people, folks.

It is all of us or it amounts to nothing.  Our struggles are not 
separate, they are the same struggle, and the powers that be will turn 
their private armies on us at home if we do not have a solid network 
with which to resist them.  Don't believe me, look only to NOLA at the 
Blackwater mercenaries that turned up there.  The photos of men hooded 
in black with the best of automatic weapons in the 9th ward speak 
volumes.

Our movement should be one of great respect, and of the depth of spirit 
we truly exhibit in all of our difference.  I am calling for a show of 
solidarity that will eclipse any we have imagined to date.  Can we do 
that Reno?  Together?

Solidarity Forever,
Laura Fillmore

On Oct 27, 2007, at 10:08 PM, Chesley Spring wrote:

> RIGHT-ON and YES to John Auer's call to "pledge
> ourselves to end this war at all costs."
>
> If we unite in action to STOP the slow, deliberate
> carnage and displacement of the Iraqi people, the
> positive effects will reverberate everywhere,
> including here in Reno as we say NO to the immigration raids!!!
>
> Chesley Spring
>   HUMN 422/DVUO 
>   chesleyspring at sbcglobal.net
>   1-775-747-2208
>      
>
>
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