I think ted said it best, none of us are naive enough to believe that holding hands in the park is going to usher such a change as to institute a legislative shift on the war in Iraq. What is does, however, is remind us that, although we are immersed in this all consuming struggle on forein soil, we have the power to remind ourselves and our neighbors that it is still possible for love to abound here at home. It is too easy to get bogged down with insurmountable policy and a governing body who acts without reguard to the concerns of the people, but it is our charge to make our corner of this often opressive world as plesant for one another as possible. I am happy to say that I was lucky enough to be in the park that day celibrating with Ted and his family and I would encourage anyone who can to join in next year and go for another record!

(from portland peace festival co-founder, ted musgrave)
hi everybody....
i've read these many thoughts over the months and have come to one conclusion: we all should do what WE can to bring peace to OUR lives and to OUR world... this was portland maine's (the peace festival committee's) first attempt at this. (we plan to do it next year too - July 2008!)
let's face it - i'm not naive - there will always be WAR.
but in each of our lives we should strive to be nicer to one another... (you know - "pass it forward" type of philosophy)..
anyway - do what you can...
overthrow the government (hopefully in a peaceful way!), don't pay your "war taxes" - if you can afford to be interviewed by the irs, walk a neighbor across the street, take a homeless person to lunch, volunteer at your local library, etc.
DO what YOU can...!!!!
forget about what all the others are doing and just do what U can do !!!
there is a corner of my soul that aches so badly that i sometimes can't bear to watch the nightly news. PLEASE reach out... so someday my grandchildren will be so close to peace... they can reach out and touch it!
thanks so much for what you (that "one" person) can do.. i know my co-founder and peace festival committee members feel the same... (and thanks to "commondreams" for enlightening us all)
xoxox
ted musgrave (portland peace festival co-founder)

Jen asked how we stop the war. The war will end when the soldiers in the field refuse to fight as what happened in Vietnam. You can refuse to pay your taxes. You can organize strikes for peace at your school and place of work.
Kill power is the ultimate power on which every government is based. Eliminate that power and the war will stop.

You want to stop war? Then introduce federal legislation that mandates that if Congress votes to go to war, then Congresspeople must go and fight said war.During Viet Nam,only men from age 17 to 26 were sent to fight, but the neocons changed the rules when they put the National Guard and Reserves into the mix. Many of those troops are in their 50's, and even older, so now the senators and representatives can no longer use age as an excuse as to why they aren't doing the same fighting that they send our (mostly poor) citizens to do

When politicians have to fight, U.S. war will end.

Let's make the next human peace sign on the lawn at the White House, which is OUR house!

Peace, from an x-infantryman, and a member of the VN-era GI resistance, 1971-1974.

Please, the USofA won their points, and than left Vietnam.
The points:
1. Ho Che Min, or any other third-world leader will never have "self determination" for their country, no matter if
His intentions were good for his people, no matter if he had been friend of USofA, no matter if He was a loved charismatic leader, or a despot. No matter if every brown person in the third-world country dies learning this. Remember, death serves as a political tool for manipulating the living.
The "living", in this case all other Nations, learned that the USofA will spend all the wealth it can squeeze from manipulating the dollar, manipulating oil, whatever, toward this end.
2. The USofA knows best. Nixon knows best. Johnson knows best. Street people in the USofA, if they could know what their Leaders know, would agree. But, thay can't know, so their good Leaders let them protest, have children's tantrums, because they can't know the things that their Leader's know. If they knew, they would understand.
See the Bible.
3. All Bell helicopters are made in TEXAS. The ranch was there.
F.E.C. wired and electrfied Vietnam. Mrs. Johnson owned FEC.
Brown and Root, or their parent Co. made money building TonSinUte and all the other bases in S.E.A.
George Bush's brother cut the new oil deals in the gulf of Tonkin.
The USNavy uses more oil than any Nation on this planet.
WE WON
Forget the Vets, they are soon dead anyway. Long live Corporations.

Signed, a USArmy combat medic, 1969-70

The bloodshed in Vietnam eventually came to a stop.

But not before you saw massive demonstrations, lots of acts of public disobedience, and finally, senior commanders in the field in Vietnam reporting a shortage of junior grade officers to command the troops because the ones the Pentagon had previously sent had died under questionable circumstances.

As long as people remain complacent, and keep paying their taxes, and allow commerce to be conducted as usual, you can expect the occupation of Iraq to continue and george w. bush to continue ignoring established law.

Good on these people from Maine. Let's all do this next Wednesday in our own towns, and then march down to the local docks for a sit-down strike. We'll block traffic on the freeway, make a general nuisance of ourselves, and block the perishable cargo from leaving the docks.

Cesar Chavez was once asked how he managed to put together an organization to bring attention to the farm workers in California. His reply was, "One person at a time." For every person who formed this peace sign there were perhaps a hundred who thought the same way. There are those of us who are comfortable joining events like this and those who aren't. Just because we don't see tens of thousands at each and every peace rally doesn't mean the majority aren't behind them. Remember Nixon's "Silent Majority?" Don't underestimate the effectiveness of small demonstrations and rallies. One person on a street corner with a sign can have an effect in his/her community.

Never give up.

Portland, Maine is a great city!!! Home to people like Eli Parisier of MoveOn.org and former Congressman Tom Andrews of WinWithoutWar. And home to CommonDreams.org!

Every peaceful effort, however small, is valuable.

mabey its more important that people outside the US see this image.

And if you need some more motivation, please visit Faiza's Iraq blog here:

http://afamilyinbaghdad.blogspot.com/

The picture is beautiful --

Thank you Maine -- !!!!

However, it should be IMPEACH for PEACE --

A sufficient protest turnout, one in the millions that shuts the city of Washington DC down due to simple sheer numbers, _would_ have an effect.

But only a small fraction of those who claim they care turn out - enormous national organizational efforts by UFPJ and ANSWER never managed to turn out more than about 100-200,000. Fundamentalist Christians turn out far more for Anti-abortion protests, and Jews turn out more over their peculiar over-attention to the Darfur crisis. Meanwhile, so many, hung up in the culture of the celebrity, heap praise on "leaders" like Cindy Sheehan or Medea Benjaman. But when it actually come time to commit to doing something, it's "oh, I've got shopping to do", sorry, I've got ticket for a show that day. etc, etc ad nauseum. Then there's the old "no answer at all" - except for a look on their face that shown they are worrying how it could affect their job or relationship with friends.

People, this is not a TV episode.

What would you do to if you had to donate an organ to save a dying brother, sister, or best friend? You wouldn't say "oh, I can fit it in my schedule"? Well, vastly many more people are dying, but, frankly, even those who incessantly say they care on this site, or at my workplace, are just spewing pure bullshit. Their non-action speaks far more clearly that they don't give a flying fuck for the people of Iraq or the fate of their own country.

I am going, at this point by myself, to Sheehan's march DC tomorrow.

Godfathers comment is all well and good but . . . Where else will you see this picture? This was done on July 14th and today being the 22nd and I have yet to have seen this image any place else. Of course I will pass it on but to whom . . . To folks of like mine. So here we are again preaching to the choir.
Want something interesting check out the link that Li-an put up. Then see if you find this bit of news any place else. That should give you a clue to what is really happening. If you find this bit of news any place else there may be hope. If you don't . . . . Well need I say more.
Corporations are running Washington DC and they don't give a S__T about what you think.

Portland might want to know about this. All Americans might want to know about this.

http://goldismoney.info/forums/showthread.php?t=157432

Personally I feel that the 'get together' in Maine was not a waste of time.

Similar disparaging remarks are sometimes made on C-D by some folk who castigate others for writing here, (-with the assumption or implication that folks are doing nothing else, -but just writing on blogs).

My take on all this, is that every action DOES have results, -can it fail to do so?

Yes, -of course- if ALL we ever did was write on blogs and form human symbols in parks, then that is not nearly enough, but I feel that when such actions are taken, it strengthens a COMMUNITY SPIRIT of resistance, and such actions have spin-offs, they perhaps inspire others to 'bigger and better things'?
** They certainly raise awareness and consciousness in others who witness such events ** -and is that not something we long for?

And, for as long as people are uplifting each other in a spirit of COMMUNITY PROTEST, in whatever shape or form, (be it large or small actions) then it KEEPS THE FLAME ALIVE in peoples' hearts...

Progressive folk then feel that they are not so isolated in the current mess that mis-government is causing the planet, ~ and that surely is a good thing?

Wave on!

Before the County of Los Angeles approves it's 18 billion budget each year, a State mandated 10 days of public comment is uasualy only one or two days. No one much shows up except the horse trail people.
When the State of California held public hearings on the deregulation of electric power in 1995 and 96, maybe 10 or 12 of us showed up. PG&E, SCE, SDPL, Enron, et. al. stole 40 billion+ from California's budget "surplus".
When we protested Gov Wilson signing the legislation because it would also make ratepayers pay for the risk losses of nuclar plant "investors", four people were there.
The police in Los Angeles can usualy match the protesters in number if they want to. Often it looks that way on our streets.
In the last election, we sat there for 14 hours. my precinct had 20 voters.
In 1999,00,01 we averaged 500 to a thousand people a month in social justice meetings. A thousand so far this year met locally in such meetings. But now, I'm swimming in e-mail.
Democracy works: We get what we deserve.

P.S. Brook General Hospital in San Antonio TX. had a sidewalk until 1970 that was a 200 foot peace symbol.
The USArmy added two spokes that went nowhere that year.

It din edit

Hey Jen, we don't like hearing the truth, cause the truth at times hurts our feelings. Godfather's comment made more of an impression with me regarding the war in Iraq, than the photograph did.

How do we stop the war you ask? Well, probably not by having some fun in the park. Now the truth is, if I lived in Portland Maine, I likely would have been out there too. I believe Godgather was just makig a fun, yet critical observation.___ (that it aint't quite enough.)

Your comment didn't hurt either, cause it cleared the air for some thoughtful thinking. After reading your's, I for one, realized there was a message in his sarcasm. He made a good point. We all have a lot of work to do, if we are gonna stop Cheney.

We live in a country where the government exists purely for the government..the people it appears are completely disconnected from the process of governing.

"Do you have no hope?"...not much...this regime in DC...has me completely flummoxed...they just do as they please and there are no consequences for their actions ...and our so called Democrat controlled congress dithers away the remaining time of the administration...like a bunch of just caught fish flopping around on a dock.

Pelosi...has spoken...impeachment is not an option...she will be remembered for nothing else...so much for her being the first woman speaker...not!

The Godfather,
How do we stop the war? Your comment was very discouraging. Do you have no hope?

Nice way to spend an hour or two...Everyone felt so good...Then they all went home...Maybe sang Kumbayah....It's like pissing your pants in a dark suit; feels so good for a few seconds and no one notices certainly not the politicians.
As Haig used to say,"Let them march all they want to so long as they pay their taxes."
Getting together and holding hands ain't a threat to anyone in DC.

I have to say good going, Portland Maine. You Yankees done and done it right on this peace thing, ya'll!