Of War and Peace

I think it's fair to point out that the organizers for Saturday's big peace rally in Washington DC obtained a permit for 100,000 protesters and, by most accounts, easily surpassed that number.

Depending on who you ask, it was "huge," "hundreds of thousands" of people, or even "five hundred thousand" people (that from C-SPAN; CNN was reporting 600,000!). Add to that peace rallies in other major cities that drew tens of thousands more people, including in San Francisco (estimates ranged from 20,000 to 50,000), Los Angeles, Seattle, London (10,000 to 100,000), Paris, Rome...

In contrast, organizers of Sunday's pro-war rally (do you think there are pro-famine, pro-pestilence and pro-death rallies, too?) obtained a permit for 10,000 protesters, but:

About 100 people had gathered before a stage set up on the eastern portion of the mall as the noon rally began. A large photo of an American flag served as a backdrop for the stage, and country music blared from speakers while other banners and signs proclaiming support for U.S. troops waved in the breeze...

Another account numbered the pro-war rally at 400.

We're in the majority. We represent the majority of Americans, according to the polls, and the vast majority of people who care enough to stand up and be counted, according to the streets of our nation's capital. And we've been among the majority of people worldwide since the beginning. Now, let's end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and work to end war, period!

Madison Walks the Walk

If you don't already know, Madison peace groups are gathering signatures to hold a "bring the troops home, now!" referendum this spring. See the Madison Area Peace Coalition website for more information, or contact the Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice to offer your assistance.

Another important local effort is to ensure that workers in Madison are guaranteed a modest amount of paid sick leave -- the equivalent of nine days for a full-time worker. Needless to say, it's the working poor -- who are mostly women -- who are in desperate need of sick time. I've read too many stories of women losing jobs and/or being kicked off of the draconian W-2 program because they needed to stay home with a sick child. Learn more about the Healthy Families, Healthy City Coalition here.

A Few Website Improvements

Ever click on one of the monthly "Archive" links (at the bottom of the right column) and get a page of weird code? Well, that's fixed, thanks to a friend. Plus, you don't have to be a registered Blogger user to leave comments anymore. Crazy go nuts with the feedback, dear readers!

Most exciting, in my opinion, is that we now have a site feed, for blog aficionados and others who want to know when a new post appears on our lovely Think Pink! blog. Enjoy.

The Revitalization of the Peace Movement

I recently returned from an inspiring and productive sister-city delegation to East Timor (watch this site for more news, including announcements of public reports back).

I came back to the U.S. about a week after the now-famous peace vigil outside Bush's Crawford ranch had begun. To be honest, I was a little skeptical at many media outlets' claims that Cindy Sheehan's protest had revitalized the peace movement.

Of course, I was happy that major media were recognizing the existence of the U.S. peace movement. But we've been opposing the occupation of Iraq since before the (official) U.S. invasion! And we've been here ever since - it's just that reporters, for the most part, were suddenly regaining interest in us. I chalked up the Crawford vigil's media coverage to the seemingly-inescapable reporting conventions which often distort the news - the tendency to put things in personal terms, to present little or no context, to focus on "leaders" instead of movements. (To be fair, there was also a liberal PR firm involved that put the story in those terms.)

Then, I sat down to update this website, including the news and events pages. And I was really impressed by the upcoming peace events - the Camp Casey Caravan tonight at the Barrymore, Kids for Peace next weekend, the ongoing work for a Bring the Troops Home Now referendum in Madison - not to mention the September 24 national peace rally in Washington DC and annual events like next Saturday's Fighting Bob Fest. (See more info and links on our events page or on the Madison Area Peace Coalition's website.)

Perhaps the peace movement has become revitalized. It certainly makes me hopeful.

And thank goodness for some good news. The fight over Supreme Court nominations just doubled, with Chief Justice Rehnquist's death yesterday. And the devastation from Hurricane Katrina is truly heartbreaking - some are now estimating more than 10,000 dead in Louisiana alone!

Our news page links to several stories about Katrina's aftermath, focusing on politics and race. But I'd like to add here two links on how you can donate to help the predominantly poor and Black people who were ignored and left to fend for themselves for far too long:

• Network for Good has a comprehensive list of organizations working to help the hurricane victims; and


• The People's Institute is a New Orleans-based grassroots, anti-racist organization focused on community organizing that could really use some help.