Gin and Tonic Under the Stars!

By whose means will change come? By all of ours.

It is funny sometimes how the most visionary folks can sometimes be the one with narrowest. They see far but not wide.

I too think we need to understand there are Pacificist and then there are anti empirialist and then there are antiwar, etc.... It's funny how many times these individuals dont see the validity in each other.

I have this ongoing conversation with a Florida Green about Gun Control. And I argue for all the movements that have suceeded that rejected violence. And he argues that if it were not the armed resistance that stood in the background, Gandhi's nonviolent resistance would not have suceeded, and he argues that MLK wouldnt have been able to draw attention from the machine, if it weren't for the fact that Malcolm was just outside the door.

I dont have any answers. In my ideological fantasy world I wanna think peace will always overcome violence. Eventually the oppressed will walk with oppressor. But in the real world, sometimes I am let down.

Whether to take a course to end suffering and war that may be longer and slower, one that rejects violence (therefore possibly a greater loss of life and oppression is suffered) is the only correct path, or whether the justification of ending the suffering is balanced by violent resistance to oppression.

I only know where I am in my heart. What I feel in my soul. And that is I hope I never get to the point again in my life that I would resort to violence to solve a problem. That is where I am coming from.
We humans all share that fight or flight instinct. But as creature of intellect we can overcome the inclination to see only those two options.

It is too bad that folks who are on this list are concerned that we are all coming from the same place whether pacificist or anti empiralist or whatever name you choose. I am more concened that we are heading in similiar directions.

I know folks here who are righteously opposed to the war. Who would go to jail for justice in a second. I have stood in front of tanks in the streets of Miami with Greens. I have stood while tear gas and rubber bullets shot all around. I have had to talk reporters down from freaking out from tramatic shock at what they were seeing. I watched my friends get hit. Watched them get arrested. I cried too many tear gas induced streams across this country. So is there a place for civil disobedience and direct action in my life, yes.

But I have also stood silently at vigils that were surely almost democrats in attendance, and heard them talk about talking to people in check out lines to stop the war. And how they should all call their congressmen. As they gather in their protected park with no real threat for their expressing a resistance by lighting a candle. But this middle age soccer moms can reach folks that some of us can't. And I share with them stories of what others have done and are doing.These seniors who have toed the democratic Parties line for decades can begin to whisper to each other. And the whisper grows.

So I think we need to give each other a break. I think we need to worry less about what divides us and more about what unites us and stop this war together. We need the democratic soccer moms, the ISO sisters, the GPAX, ANSWER, UFPJ, and whoever else to lay aside any differences and stop this military industrial complex in it's tracks, because we all know it is far more than Iraq and Afghanistan it is the world.

There will be plenty of time to debate philosphy after the wars are over. We can all spend hours on hours and debate whether it was a mom in Crawford, A street Movement, Civil Disobedience, elected officials, or the Green Party that stopped the war. While were sipping gin and tonics under the stars feeling glad we were part of it.

Can you feel the stirring?

Over the last few days people have started calling with that question for me again. What can I do to stop the war?

The good news is the movement that at one time was the largest prewar antiwar movement is now awakening and on the ramp up. Just as our Government called for a ramp up in Iraq, the peace movement began an even more powerful ramp up. And folks can feel the stir.

Recently even the corporate media have to admit that there are now more opposed to this war than ever before.

Now today comes the word that UFPJ and ANSWER will unite and share a rally and march. This has the potential to be the largest antiwar rally in History. We have the power and the time to make it happen. And the Greens are ramping it up.

Across the country Green activists are planning for rallies in their local area, for buses to go to DC, to coordinate events in DC, and to keep the movement growing beyond that.

Below I have information about Buses from the Hudson Valley in New York and buses from Florida. Following that is a survey that you can fill out and send back to the GPUS Peace Action Committee to help us create a one stop shop for Sept 24th actions. Where you will soon be able to find out various info about local and national events for the 24th and where to find a bus.

From Hudson Valley Activist Newsletter, Aug. 19, 2005:

GOOD NEWS FOR THE ANTIWAR MOVEMENT:
THE TWO PEACE COALITIONS WILL UNITE
FOR ONE BIG RALLY AND MARCH IN
WASHINGTON SEPTEMBER 24!

The two leading American antiwar coalitions < href="http://webmail.bellsouth.net/agent/MobNewMsg?to=jacdon@earthlink.net">jacdon@earthlink.net or call (845) 255-5779 and
tell us you want a reservation. Supply your name, town, boarding location
(Kingston, New Paltz or Poughkeepsie), email address, telephone number and
the names of those in your party if you are reserving for others as well.

Then make out your check to ³Newsletter² and mail it to HV Activist
Newsletter, PO Box 662, New Paltz, NY 12561. We will get back to you with
full information, including pickup times, locations, details about the event
and instructions about what to bring, food, etc.

As usual we want to reduce prices for people of low income and students. Our
ability to do this depends on the generosity of our activist readers. We
truly value your contributions because they make it possible for a number of
people to join the protest who otherwise would have to remain home. Make
out your check and mail it as above, but write ³contribution² on the memo
line so we will earmark it for that purpose.

---

From South Florida:

Leaving Sept 23rd

Leaving Miami:

7:00am                U U church at 7701sw. 76th ave

8:00 to 8:30         Golden glades park and ride

Fort Lauderdale

9:00                    1420 sw. 13th street

North Broward
  
10:00am               Tri-Rail Amtrak station Hillsboro Blvd. and I 95

West Palm

11;00                    TBA

Fare is $95.00 round trip. We are seeking donations to provide scholarships for activists who need assistance. You are responsible for your food.

Make check out to the Palm Beach County Green Party.

We will arrive in DC at 8:00am, plain is to disimbark at a Metro Station in Northern Va. and ride the train to the event. We will return to
the bues by way of the Metro in the evening, TBA.

For more info call Ray at 754-423-0051 or email mrrratpp@aol.com

---

And finally the GPAX Survey.

Please take a moment to share this survey with all your contacts and fill out the following Questionnaire and email it to: greentararaider@yahoo.com

The GPUS Peace Committee (GPAX) is collecting Data on Sept 24th events to be shared on our website to help coordinate resources between National, State, and Local Greens. We appreciate your participation in this survey and ask that you keep checking back at our website http://www.gp.org/committees/peace/ where we will be providing updated info on the Green Party's 9/24 events and information on resources.

Please share any information on Sept 24th events, regardless of
whether it is an officially sanctioned Green event.

Name of person filling out questionaire:

Email of person filling out questionaire:

What are Greens in your area / state doing to mobilize for the peace
events on September 24th?

Local Events:
What local or State 9/24 events/actions do you know about (please list
events and details)?



Are the local/state Greens participating in these events (organizing,
speaking, marching, attending) please describe?


Are there any Greens speaking at these Events (please include names and
contacts if available)?

NATIONAL EVENTS
Do you have locals participating in the DC event ?


Do you know of buses that will be traveling from your area to this event
(please include details, who is organizing, and contact if available )?


Have you ever been to http://www.gp.org/committees/peace/ ?

Please share your impressions….

More still Needed in Crawford

So last night we had vigils all around my county. Six in my county to be exact. The one in my hometown was only organized with 24 lead time and still managed to draw around 65. Others in the area had at least 200.

And the faces I saw were not the same ones I have been seeing for the last 4 years. There were many new ones.

Cindy was the wake up alarm for the peace movement. Unfortunately, she has left Crawford due to her mother's help. But last night tens of thousands mothers came to join Cindy. And Camp Casey was always more than just one Mother. It is more important that more continue to go to Crawford.

Please work to send people to Crawford. Or to the other Camp Caseys Springing up. GPAX is helping to coordinate Greens to Crawford, so please consider making a donation to help them support the peace movement.

Speaking of other ones. I have received a report from NYC Camp Casey:

Many more greens have shown up and they now have the NYS Green banner, They had aprox. 1000 people there last night.

Article About New Paltz Green Elected's Journey to Crawford

Rebecca Rotzler, Steering Committee member of the Green Party of the United States just got back from Crawford. Greens are continuing to show up to support Cindy and help her be heard.

Thanks for carrying that torch Rebecca.

See the article about her journey below


http://www.recordonline.com/archive/2005/08/17/supporte.htm
August 17, 2005

Mid-Hudson takes stand against war

By Jeremiah Horrigan
Times Herald-Record
jhorrigan@th-record.com

New Paltz – The war protest sparked by Cindy Sheehan outside President Bush's ranch has begun to spread like a prairie fire to the mid-Hudson region.

A New Paltz woman has just returned from Crawford, Texas, and a Kerhonkson woman is scheduled to go there this morning. Later today, anti-war groups are scheduled to offer public vigils and discussion groups about the war.

New Paltz Village Trustee Rebecca Rotzler, a national Green Party official, spent the weekend making her way to Sheehan's "Camp Casey" a few miles from President George W. Bush's Texas retreat.

Sheehan's son, Casey, was killed while serving with the Marines in Iraq last year. Sheehan has gained national attention by camping near the president's ranch to protest the war, insisting she wants Bush to tell her why the war in Iraq was started and why it continues. Since she began her protest, hundreds of supporters have joined her.

Rotzler returned Monday; across the Shawangunk Ridge in Kerhonkson, Judith Karpova plans to make the same journey early this morning. Karpova was a voluntary "human shield" in Iraq; these were anti-war people who placed themselves around key infrastructure points in Baghdad, until nine days before the U.S. invasion.

"Cindy Sheehan is holding this government accountable for what's happening in Iraq – and what's happening isn't us as a nation. It's the government who's lied to us about this war," Karpova said.

Rotzler, who was accompanied by her 16-year-old son, Lorin, finally made it to sun-baked Camp Casey on Sunday. There, she met Sheehan and delivered a message of support from the national Greens.

"She's touched by all the people who have shown up, how far they've traveled. She still seems surprised by it all," Rotzler said yesterday.

Rotzler rejected criticism of the Camp Casey effort as being little more than a summertime media circus.

"She's not doing it just for the attention, but to give people like herself a chance to stand against the war – people who support the people who are over there but not the war itself," Rotzler said.

"She proves that people can oppose the war and not feel ashamed, as if they were undercutting the troops."

A vigil outside Elting Memorial Library in New Paltz is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. today. In Kerhonkson, a pot-luck dinner and discussion group are scheduled at the Berme Road home of anti-war activist Sarah Underhill at 6:30 p.m.

Camp Casey in NYC Gains Ground

Camp Casey NYC is going strong. Read Zool's message from the Camp below. The Greens Peace Committee is now accepting online donations which will help Greens like Zool continue to lead the peace movement

Check out GPAX here: http://www.gp.org/committees/peace/

peace,
echo

Sisters & Brothers--

"Camp Casey NYC", located at the southwest corner of Union Square, remains
encamped mid-Day 3, Wednesday, August 17. This, now ongoing, vigil was
kicked off Monday afternoon, August 15, by several activists and artists
following a rally in support of Cindy Sheehan sponsored by the Troops Out
Now coalition.

Tuesday, during the evening of Day 2, attorney Leonard Weinglass spent two
hours in Union Square encouraging anti-war activists at this "non-sectarian
Camp Casey NYC". Surrounded by banners and posters, and offering literature
from diverse anti-war groups (such as United for Peace and Justice, the
Green Party, MoveOn and the International Action Center, among others),
supporters of Cindy Sheehan's Crawford, Texas vigil, included Greens,
liberal Democrats, libertarian Republicans and anarchists, as well as, men
and women of all colors and ancestry, young and old, war veterans and
homeless people (many a combination of all these).

As of this morning, we collected over 50 personal letters for Cindy from New
Yorkers (and people from around the world passing through Union Square). A
dozen were delivered by hand to Cindy in Crawford this afternoon by anti-war
veteran and activist Dustin Langley. We expect to see the building of a
"Camp Casey NYC Mailbox" begin this afternoon and we will encourage folks to
continue writing and expect that all these letters will be delivered to
Cindy by hand. We will continue to read some of these letters out loud in
Union Square throughout the day and night.

At 7:30 PM this evening, we will participate in the candlelight vigil for
Cindy sponsored by MoveOn. We continue to request that folks in the New
York City area join us for a few hours during the day or overnight. Please
bring "Camp Casey NYC" banners and all manner of anti-war signs, please
bring small tents or models of encampments, musical instruments (especially
if you can play one), and whatever else your inspiration may provide,
allowing "Camp Casey NYC" to remain viable in our ongoing support of Cindy
Sheehan's breakthrough anti-war protest. Thanks and best wishes.

--zool

PS If you care to contact us, you may reach me at 646-549-1615, batteries
willing.

Light a Candle Tonight

Take a moment tonight at 7:30 and think of Cindy. There are over 6 vigils happening in my area. They are happening all over the country. I will be attending one in Lake Worth at the Cultural Plaza.

Don't let the momentum slip.

Lets light up the night with our light.

Time to grab the tent

So tomorrow Peace Groups around the country are calling for a day of solidarity for Cindy Sheehan. Our local Groups will gather at 7:30. And all over the country folks are dusting off that camping gear.

Because you dont have to go to Crawford, to be a part of Camp Casey. Because Camp Casey is more than a ditch on the side of a road on the way to a billionaires house. Camp Casey has a tent pitched in hearts in every city in the country. And now satellite Camp Casey's are springing up.

So the weekend is almost here. If you can't get to Crawford. Be Crawford. Be where you are at gather your local friends together and have yourself a nice weekend in the tents. Sleep under the stars, the same stars Cindy will sleep in. The same stars that our troops sleep in tents under. Let us be one under the stars this weekend.

I wanted to share the latest piece from Cindy to cross my monitor. She is a woman of steel and there are a million more where she came from. They are awaking to her call.

And now they have more room to camp! The entire country is our Campground! Whose Campground? Our Campground!

Tuesday, August 16th, 2005
The Peaceful Occupation of Crawford (Day 10);
Misses and Miracles

-- a message from Cindy Sheehan, Crawford, TX

We still have so many great things happening at Camp Casey. In spite of all the smears and lies,
people are still coming.

The most amazing thing today was learning that Camp Caseys are opening and spreading all over the country. They have been set up in Boston, Portland, Seattle, and elsewhere. If you can't make it to Camp Casey, set up your own version. Camp Caseys are amazing places full of love and hope. I am so gratified that the movement is spreading.

There is a meeting tomorrow at the County Commissioner's meeting to vote on closing Prairie
Chapel Road and then evicting us. We were all worried about that and planning on being arrested when we got the best news yet. The property owner who owns property near Bush's ranch and right across the street from Bush's church will let us move Camp Casey there!! He has property on both sides of the road ... a full acre for us to camp!

We are so excited!!! We can fit more people and we will be closer to the ranch. Miracles,
miracles.

Mike Rogers from Tokyo showed up today and a dear woman from Australia who was a human shield in Iraq and knows that the Iraqi people are not jumping for joy that the policies of Bush
destroyed their country.

This is an extremely short post today ... I am exhausted.

Update Camp Casey NYC formed

A number of sisters and brothers from several antiwar organizations along with zool a member of GPAX have established Camp Casey N.Y.C. in Union Square. zool and a number will remain at Camp Casey N.Y.C. at least until Wednesday morning August 17th when Dustin Langly a Vet Against the War will leave N.Y.C. to join Cindy Sheehan in Crawford Texas. Some folks in the New City Area might choose to join us in Union Square, people might bring antiwar signs, Green Party Banners, Tents, Musical Instruments, water, food and anything else they might think of to choose to help build a peace action encampment at union square New York City.

For more information contact zool at his cell phone at 646-549-1615.

If you can't get to N.Y.C. or get to Crawford, Texas
START A CAMP CASEY WHERE YOU LIVE!!!!

Who's Greener than Who?

This is an expanded upon rant that started as a post to the GPUS National Committee list. But I have had request to share it with all Greens. So live from Lake Worth.....my thoughts on the heirarchy of self actualization within the Green Party.


I have noticed a lot of discussion about who is a Green. Or who is Greenest. And of course who might be other than a Green disguising themselves as a Green for ulterior motives. I really try to avoid this. But I feel compelled to voice my thoughts. I have been recruiting for the Greens hard before, during, and after the 2004 Presidential elections.

Many of our new local Greens voted last election cycle. Many if not most of them voted other than Green.

Now besides the new Greens who supported Kerry. Some established Greens chose to do the same. Some did openly and some did through various strategies and by softening the Greens impact. Some who did this were just rank and file Greens, who mostly no one outside their local would even know their stances. However, some who supported Kerry were well known and even elected Greens. Unfortunately, those who were well known and made what I personally believe to be a tactical error took the heat for all the soft on Kerry folks.

The support of the Kerry ticket by some of the most hardest working and prominent Greens has brought much ire in their direction within the party. There are those who I think genuinely would prefer these folks not be Greens due to their positions.

My question for those who believe there is no room for those who supported Kerry is should I now notify all new Greens and all the established Greens in Florida that they should abandon ship and discourage them from participating at a state or national level, unless they passed the litmus test of renouncing Kerry as the Corporate supporter of the War that he was? Or is it just folks who actually get themselves elected that are not allow to disagree with others in the party? Because half the responses to our Green Presidential poll in my state regretably said we should run no candidate, and I bet those folks voted Kerry in Droves. And then there is the almost as many of us in Florida who were Nader supporters. How many Presidential elections do the Greens in my state have to vote Green before they are one?

Even being a supporter of Nader's I wonder, if maybe folks would want me to encourage purging both sides (which means I am out too) and only letting those who voted Green to remain Green.

Maybe some of you folks can recommend the best way of ridding myself of myself and these other infidels.

I also want to disclose, that I did not support Kerry. I would vote for a bag of crap before supporting that corporate shill. But I did vote Nader. So I crossed the Party lines. As did folks that voted for Kerry.

I don't like what the openly supportive of Kerry Greens did, and I tell them why one on one, Green to Green. They don't like what I did in supporting Nader, and they tell me why. Thats the breaks.

But you know what, we are all still Greens, so far.

When I became a Green, I was told that ten key values made being a green. If anyone wants to write an eleventh that states you must support the party ticket and stance 100% of the time for a set determined amount of elections to keep your Green status, go ahead.

Let the folks who have purged their own state of those who lesser eviled and those who voted Nader throw the first stone. Because the irony is both sides are two sides of the same coin. We wanted something else than to vote for the Green ticket this time. Both groups did so because of deep ideological feelings.

I vote dem all the time, because I have no other choice, because no Green or acceptable choice is running. It usually disgusts me, but I do it. I bet most of you do it too. Until we have a Green or two in every race on every ballot, this will not change.

I have a great idea for those who like me rejected the safe state strategy, engage those who feel otherwise in a honest and respectful discussion. Grow the Party like mad for four years. Then in 2008 maybe we will not have these problems. Maybe I am naive, but I truly believe that if we get our act together we can build this party to the point that we can get 5% next election. But that will take a united Green Party.

Or we can treat each other with disrespect. Possibly split the party and end up on other aisles again in 2008 with candidates that are not unifying enough to get even Greens to vote for them.

I wonder which of those strategies will grow the Green party in the next four years.

And if any of you Greens that are upset by the ideological divide think you can cut and run from the Greens can build a party so easily once outside of the Greens, why don't you show us how it's done and grow the party now. I am talking to both sides of the aisle on that one. If you think its hard with all of us now, wait until you try with half of us, with the other half working toward the same natural constituents.

50,000 people starved today. Hundreds began the journey to Crawford. Greens are working on petitions to support Cindy Sheehan. And fundraising to get more Greens to Crawford. GPAX is working to put create a visible presence across this country on Sept 24th.

And somewhere in cyber space a dozen Greens on our National list, the same dozen or so who continually dominate the conversation, inch further apart and continue to split our party further as they discuss what happened in 2004 instead of what is happening today and what will happen tomorrow.

You know what happens when you walk only looking backwards?...... You bump into stuff because you don't know what is in front of you.

Since some folks say its not over until you say its over, just let me know when you this debate is over. Let me know which side won and whether I am a Green or not. And when its over I will be thrilled, then I can know when I can engage the debaters in a discussion about party building. So then I can engage them in a discussion about ending this war now, which silly ole me thinks is more important than this debate.

The funniest thing about this all, is that it seems that some of our brightest and most dedicated greens are the ones who continue this. I guess Ginsberg had it right...."I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked" You snipers are Howling freeking goofy. And you are gonna give yourself health issues if you dont relieve some of that anger.

END the War, stop the fighting. Start right here. Tonight. Join GPAX and help the Greens Stop the War.

I thought this was a party, not a debate club. Walk away from the keyboard and join me in the streets.

Reports from LA Green From the Peace Front in Crawford

Report below forwarded by Leenie Halbert
leenie@leenie.com of the Louisiana Green Party.
Andrea is Andrea Garland, also a Louisiana
From a Green, who's on the scene with Cindy Sheehan at the Camp Casey protest vigil in Crawford, Texas. Leenie also sends us the link for a video documentary from Crawford:
http://www.swimmerfilms.com/id5.html t

PLEASE FORWARD
From Andrea last night

"I'm too tired now, but I have an amazing story to tell you about how she handled a pro war currently enlisted Iraqi soldier (army journalist) who showed up this morning to talk to us. We talked to him for awhile... oh, well, I might as well tell the story now... a bunch of people talked to him, he was basically polite and respectful and while some people didn't want to talk to him (but were not confrontational, they just went elsewhere), I and others were pleased that he at least professed to wanting to engage in dialogue. He gradually worked his way to the other side of the camp and was talking to my buddy Ward and others - Ward says he was basically brainwashed, and asked him a few questions he couldn't answer. Anyway, Cindy gave a press conference and they guy walked up to her and said about Casey dying 'but he was just a drop in the bucket.' Everyone was pretty aghast and the press was all sorts of ready to catch Cindy's response.

What did Cindy do? She walked up to him, grabbed him by the hand and walked off into the triangle (that we aren't supposed to be on) with him and told the media to leave them alone. They talked for about 45 seconds and next thing everyone knew they were hugging each other
- a big, real hug. And the guy left, you could tell just by the way he walked that something had
changed. We don't need to know what she said, just that this is how Cindy handles this sort of
thing. Nothing seems to upset her, except for Casey - and what else, really, could upset her -
Casey equals all the pain in the world and I don't think anything else can hurt her now - so
instead of getting angry or defensive or having any of the reactions a lot of us might have to a
statement like that (and his comments upset a lot of people there) she just knew what to address in him - I'm not sure exactly what, but she changed something in him. And so she sets the tone for the whole camp."


More links:

"We Have the Power" by Cindy Sheehan
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0813-26.htm

"Cindy Sheehan's Message Repudiates George Bush -- and Howard Dean" by Norman Solomon
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0813-27.htm

"It Takes a Village to Smear Cindy Sheehan" by Arianna Huffington
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0813-22.htm

Washington Post front page article, August 13, 2005
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/12/AR2005081201816.html