[Peace] Peace on Prospect--somethings old, twice things new

[parenti susan rose]

AT the proteston Prospect yesterday(more like an informational exclamation
point than a protest: "We still do not support the Bush war government!!!!!!!")
on Prospect yesterday, we once again checked responses
from the passing, and often passing-but-then-stuck-at the-light, cars.

Old: There were a few finger positions in response to us(you know, the
peace sign or the proctologist finger).

Old: a woman who works for the government asked if we didn't have anything
better to do, then volunteered that people in the government really hate
what we're doing. That made us all feel important.

New: twice, we found out from the stalled cars, that the driver was a
military man who had just come back from Iraq, and, twice, the military
men agreed that the situation was shit in Iraq.

In the car where I talked
to the military man and his wife, I initially(tactfully) asked the man if
he would be willing to speak at AWARE, even if he supported the
President's position, because, I said, "People don't know what's going on
in Iraq". The wife replied bitterly, "Oh, people know what's going on
alright, and if they claim they don't know, that's because they just don't
want to".

Interesting.

Perhaps for those two cars, and their occupants, we were a necessary
relief.

And a conduit for a message they personally can't yet send(neither
miliary man agreed to speak at AWARE).

In a certain way, things are changing.