[thechat] What can WE do?

[Erika Meyer]

Kevin Stevens wrote:

>It seems to me that Bush is leading, and everyone else is following. Is
>there an organisation in America that can voice our feelings that we don't
>want war, but justice?

I think a lot of people are still reeling.  It took the US hardly any 
time at all to declare "war" (against an unknown enemy) and move in 
the troops.

To me, the continued pursuit of a violent response feels like a 
dishonoring of our need to mourn and to reflect.  Because if, like 
me, don't believe in jumping right to a military "solution,"  you 
have to snap out of your mourning / reflection process in order to 
fight it.  You no longer have time to think about how to deal with 
the issues in a reasonable way, because you now have to get busy and 
fight a war against war.

That's how I feel.

Most Americans are still in shock, and are still watching helplessly. 
A lot of Americans are waving little flags.  I guess that helps them 
feel a bit less helpless.

http://www.indymedia.org/ is a site to watch. 
http://portland.indymedia.org/ is Portland, OR version. 
http://portland911.tripod.com/  is the Peaceful Response movement 
formed in the past week.  They organized one demonstration which took 
place last weekend.

The broadcasters at KBOO, the local Portland independent radio 
station, are taking a stand against the war cries.  Many many people 
are calling into the station to express their indignation and horror 
at our rapid move toward a military response.  I gave them pledge 
money.

I think that unlike the masters of war, some of us are having a hard 
time jumping into activity.  It's only been a week.  Time is of the 
essence, true.  OTOH it is historically pretty tough to stop a war at 
this point in the game.

But even knowing we may fail to prevent war, we still must try. 
That's how I feel, anyway.   Right now my own efforts are small and 
individualized.  I'm not keeping quiet, for one thing.    I do 
believe a global movement will happen.  But these grassroots things 
take time to come together.

Our 'weapons' are the the Internet, the web, our voices, our bodies, 
acoustic guitars. ;-)

Erika

erika at seastorm.com