[Peace-discuss] Proposal for Humanitarian Drives--text

[Ken Urban]

I like this idea, but the logistics of a blood drive sound difficult,
plus you can only give blood every other month.  I think that we need to
do something weekly, not bi-monthly.

I think we can organize a weekly 'candle light vigil for peace & food
drive for justice' [yes, i'm slogan impaired, please help] at carle park
with very little effort.  We just need to pick a night, find out where
to send humanitarian aid (and how) and advertise it.  I think that a
residential park has a 'safer' feel than north prospect and will bring
out those who oppose the war, but are afraid of prowar bullies.  Also it
will be difficult to bus in lots of pro-war people to a local park. 
Look at the crowd the last candle light vigil drew, and many of those
people have not been to P4P.  Who knows, maybe we can spread to other
parks on other nights ... build community .. talk to our neighbors. Hmmm
... sorry, got carried away there ;-)

AWARE (well ... I) can print out  flyers with song lyrics hyping P4P
and whatever else we're doing to give out.

I think a week night would probably be best and since Thursday is my
free evening (with the kids) I prefer it.  

Thoughts?  Anyone one wanna help?  I can print flyers for P4P tomorrow
if I get enough response tonight otherwise I'll wait for the meeting on
Sunday.

Ken



>>> Charlotte Green <chgreen48 at yahoo.com> 04/04/03 08:43PM >>>
Here is the actual text for Tim Kemmis's proposal for
humanitarian drives, which I failed to include in
yesterday's email.

The Objective
Convince others that war is not the way to peace.

The Problems
Getting the public to understand our viewpoint.  The
Administration has skillfully couched this war in
terms of being the American way by using the flag,
"our troops" ("your sons and daughters"), slogans like
United We Stand, God Bless America, etc. over and over
and over.  As a consequence, many are afraid to voice
any opposition or misgivings about the war because the
Administration makes it appear "un-American" ( and
un-Christian, too, for that matter).

The Opportunity
The opportunity comes because there is one thing that
the present Administration will never do--kindness.

Our opportunity is to offer the American people an
alternative to the Administration that allows them to
exercise their goodness without being branded as
"un-American" and to which the Administration cannot
criticize without seriously damaging their image.

The Plan
Offer people an alternative: supporting peace through
their own action for the casualties of war (our
troops, people of other nations, the needy here at
home).

This includes sponsoring monthly drives that no one
can label as un-American and that demonstrate an
alternative to peace in stark contrast to the
Administration's policies and actions.  The activities
include a:
	--Blood drive
	--Food drive
	--Clothing drive
	--Medicine drive
	--Toy drive, etc.

The plan includes the following:
1.  We hold a press conference announcing the Blood
Drive ("Donor Day"), announcing that we believe there
is an alternative way to achieve peace: Give Blood,
Not Shed It.  We are announcing a Blood Drive for the
Casualties of War.

2.  At the bloodmobiles, we set up simple posters.  A
suggestion is a 3 poster display.  One is a picture of
a patient receiving blood with a large caption saying,
"Your blood giving life.  A second is a picture of a
dead Saddam Hussein with the large caption saying,
"Sadddam's blood given for your Peace." A third poster
has a large heading, "Are we now at Peace?" followed
by a series of simple questions that nag at people's
consciences which they must answer for themselves:
	Do you sleep better now that Saddam's threat is gone?
Will the defeat of Iraq and the death of Saddam lead
to peace in our    time?
Are there others in the Axis of Evil that must be
attacked and defeated?
Is America more loved and respected now than ever
before?
Did war "jump start" the economy and are your work
prospects better?
Are you enjoying the tax reductions the President
promised in his State of the Union address this year?

     3.  We man the bloodmobiles, and as people go
out, we simply thank them for donating blood for our
troops and the casualties of war, ask them to
participate in next month's food drive, a "Bread for
Peace" to feed the hungry.  We also invite them to
learn more about AWARE and our programs by helping
themselves to any literature on our table if they
desire.

4.  We invite anti-war groups from across the country
to join us so that this is a nation-wide blood drive
sponsored by anti-war groups.

5.  Via email, we specifically invite members of
Congress and the Illinois General Assembly to join us
in the blood drive, asking them to reply to us simply
as:
		Yes, I will donate blood for the casualties of war.
			Or
		No, I will not donate blood for the casualties of
war.

	because we are keeping tally.

6.  We invite other humanitarian groups to join us in
support of "Giving Blood for the Casualties of War."
There are many groups, each with a large number of
members, all of whom can indirectly help our cause by
agreeing to participate.  We can put together a list.

The Benefits
The benefits of such a program are great:
	It brings the people to us.
	People are not faced with making a choice about being
"un-American."
	They can realize that anti-war people like us are not
bad.
We can link with a wide group of people in other
humanitarian   	organizations.
Those who donate have the personal satisfaction of
having "done 	something good" with regard to war.
It allows us to conitineue meeting with people at
follow up drives for 	similarly worthy causes.
The anti-war movement can be shown in a good light
without the un 	American stigma the Administration
wants to portray.

Follow Up--the next month's drive
The great thing about this program is that it allows
us to invite back the same people, the same
organizations.  This next program is a national food
drive: "Bread for Peace."

The theme is simple: we believe feeding the hungry and
starving of the world promotes world peace better than
bullets.

Opportunities and slogans are nearly limitless. 
People can buy bread or make their own.  In a
nation-wide food drive, why not set a goal for 300,000
loaves of bread to be delivered to the White House and
300,000 to the Pentagon?

Slogans regarding bread and food are boundless: "Bread
that nourishes, not buys out.  Bread that sustains,
not buys off." and so on and so on.  Of course, it's
not realistic nor desirable for everyone to donate
bread because it's perishable, so we ask that most
people donate canned goods and similar items.

Ideally, it would be our preference for people to
leave their donations at the White House and their
local military installation (recruiting centers,
National Guard and Reserve armories, local forts), but
that is not practical for most people, so once again
we can link with the many organizations that
distribute food to the needy, both locally,
nationally, and internationally.

	
	



__________________________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Tax Center - File online, calculators, forms, and more
http://tax.yahoo.com 

_______________________________________________
Peace-discuss mailing list
Peace-discuss at lists.cu.groogroo.com 
http://lists.cu.groogroo.com/cgi-bin/listinfo/peace-discuss