Cross-posted at My Left Wing and Daily Kos.

I wanted to write and thank everyone for their participation in the Petals for Peace campaing.  I also wanted to let folks in the wide, wide blogosphere know that this action will be continuing forward.  So don’t forget us.

First, a recap.  This started in March when we delivered about 14 dozen individual flowers to a pro-war U.S. Congressman, asking him to stop the war.  We continued that protest last week, delivering another 300 or so flowers.  And faxes of flowers.  And mailed flowers.  It is hard to keep track of exact numbers.  But we think we’ve delivered about 500 flowers so far.  It was really cool when I got an unsolicited call from a rank-in-file UAW member, who took up a collection from our friends in the labor movement, and delivered 13 dozen flowers in one-fell swoop.

It was also cool when our blog coverage resulted in deliveries from Australia, Spain, Argentina and Italy, not to mention several of our fifty states.
We also received positive media attention.  The Brighton Argus, hometown paper for the Congressman at issue, profiled our protest.  As did Michigan State’s daily, The State News.

As for thanks, anything I say will be incomplete.

First there is thanks to BooMan and Maryscott Oconnor, who gave us much coverage at their respective blogs.

Then there are the individual bloggers who jumped-up and joined-in to spread the word.  Manneegee.  For the cool flower design.  Blueneck and ejmw and SallyCat for writing, commenting and spreading the word.  Dada and poco, I think, for their Internet photos of flowers.  Dump Terry McCauliffe for spreading it out on Michigan Liberal.  Blogging activists like ND Dem and Damnit Janet and tampopo and supersoling and CabinGirl, for trying very hard to spread the word.

I know I’m missing people who deserve praise.  Forgive my pathetic memory.  Just holler out in the comments below.  Squeaky wheel gets the grease, really.  And many people deserve to get greasy in all this.

Beyond the praise that is due, I definitely wanted to talk about moving this forward.  On a local level, that is going to happen.  But I want to move it forward in blogtopia as well.  Because I honestly believe that this simple action — delivering a protest flower to the person who is supposed to represent your interests — is a simple way for common citizens to send a strong message to their government.  Whatever happens in this year’s election, our government needs to start listening to us now.  People are still dying there.  Americans.  Iraqis.  Others.  Men.  Women.  Children.  Dollars are still being wasted there.  About $10 billion a month.  And whether you think George W. Bush is a war criminal, or you think he is a hapless idiot, or you think he is the second coming of Jesus Christ, it is pretty clear to most sane people that this war was at a minimum a very large error.  Like John Kerry said, and I paraphrase, who wants to be the last man to die for a lie.  We need to stop it.  We need actions.  And this is one way.

Here is where “Petals for Peace” is going.  I hope you can mark it on your calendar and figure out a way to help:

  1.  We will be continuing to deliver flowers to Mike Rogers.  We will focus our deliveries on Friday, June 2, 2006, over the Congressional Memorial Day break.  Other actions will be planned for that day at his Lansing office.  We want continuing national and international action to support us here, and we will provide easy ways for you to participate.
  2.  We are planning to expand our physical deliveries to the 7th district.  Pro-war Rep. Joe Schwartz (R-MI).  Another pro-war Rep.  More details will follow.
  3.  We want to spread this idea through the blogosphere.  We would love to have individuals step up and organize deliveries to the local offices of their own pro-war Representatives and Senators on this day.  It is not all that difficult to plan.  And it does not take all that many people chipping in to send a pretty loud statement.  E-mail me (tjayolson@hotmail.com) if you want to organize your own team in your own area to work in solidarity with our efforts.

I’ll be posting diaries in the weeks before our June 2, 2006 continuation.

Thanks again for helping out.  

 

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