[Peace] An anti-war Crispin's Day

[C. G. Estabrook]

The AWARE demonstration on the Quad and the march to the FBI office
(endorsed I'm happy to say by the Estabrook for Congress Committee) were
splendid successes.  Many (new) people were there (including folks who had
heard about it at the Campus Greens' Quad Day table).  The pictures on the
Quad were great -- there's no way the Quad can be shown on TV or in
newspaper photos without the anti-war signs being visible.

When we got to the FBI's hide-out, I gave a rambling talk on a
recalcitrant bull-horn -- managing to mention Bob Barr, Fred Hampton,
COINTELPRO, Waco, Ruby Ridge, VP Lon Chaney, the bearded muslim cleric
Al-Gore, and others, to try to make the point that the FBI is doing what
it does -- control dissident groups -- because we let them; 9/11 was the
best thing that happened to the Bush administration and the economic
elites who back them because the attacks gave an excuse for repression at
home and abroad.

The march went on through downtown Champaign, the highlight being a
confrontation between the splendid Susan Parenti and a
what's-all-this-then managerial type, a chubby elderly white guy (who
looked like me, come to think of it) in front of the News-Gazette Building
-- after the marchers had fallen to their knees to beseech in loud,
keening tones the family-owned newspaper for some coverage, even just a
scrap of mention.  (It was embarrassing to see the c.e.w.g. flee into the
N-G building so fast the door hit him in the face.)

Overall, a great success -- a Crispin's Day of a demonstration ("And
gentlemen in England now a-bed / Shall think themselves accursed they were
not here...").  Rob Scott, the principal organizer, and all the
sign-makers and marchers deserve congratulations -- as do those who
produced not just one but a set of leaflets on the issues -- "Civil Rights
concerns in the wake of Sept. 11," "The proposed US war on Iraq," and "US
Aid to Israel: A Call to Citizens Concerned with Repression in the West
Bank."

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  Carl Estabrook
  Green Party Candidate for
  US House of Representatives
  15th Illinois Congressional District
  "A Choice for A Change"
  24 East Green Street - Suite 14
  Champaign IL 61820
  217.355.7313
  <www.carlforcongress.org>
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  Civil disobedience is not our problem.
  Our problem is civil obedience.
  Our problem is that numbers of people all over the world
  have obeyed the dictates of the leaders of their government
  and have gone to war, and millions have been killed
  because of this obedience ...
  Our problem is that people are obedient all over the world
  in the face of poverty and starvation and stupidity,
  and war, and cruelty.
  Our problem is that people are obedient
  while the jails are full of petty thieves,
  and all the while the grand thieves are running and robbing the country.
  That's our problem.
  --Howard Zinn, *Failure to Quit*
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