[Peace] Bears' engagement results

[Kranich, Kimberlie]

There was a good turn-out for today's anti-war engagement with Bears' fans
at the intersection of Kirby and State Streets in Champaign. About 25 of us
braved the tough crowd and peacefully engaged them with questions such as:

How can we prevent a war with Iraq?
Do you want the U.S. to use nuclear weapons in your name?
Which one do you like better, football or war?

We gave out more than 150 informational fliers in less than one hour  about
why Iraq is not a military threat and that the Pentagon is talking about
nuclear war in its conversations about war with Iraq. Next time I'll bring
500 fliers!

For many people, the question of nuclear war was very disturbing. This might
be the issue that turns the war mongering around.

Some things we discussed while protesting/engaging others were:

1)Renting a billboard (we left a message asking for rates)

2)Wearing Bears' jerseys next time
 
3)Making a mobile billboard that would cruise around in Bears' game traffic
and hand out informational fliers.  We could put this on the back of a truck
and it wouldn't cost us anything.

4) Rent a blimp to fly over the stadium with anti-war messages

5) Paul K. brought performance ideas today and wore a referee's uniform.
Perhaps we could rehearse some things before the next engagement?

The next home games are as follows:

Sunday, 9/8
Sunday, 9/22
Monday, 10/7

We should plan actions for all of these games and start a collection for a
stationary billboard and jerseys.

We did good hard work today.  Yes, many people's minds were closed but many
also engaged us and said they were frightened about the potential for
nuclear weapons.  Those who argeed with us were urged to write Congress.

Engagement.  It's better than war!  Let's keep it up.

Kimberlie