You may recall how right after Hurricane Katrina struck the gulf coast, I was in New York, spending thousands of dollars on shoes. Ferragamos to be precise. It’s true –people were drowning, people were suffering and losing their homes and I was out shopping. Remember after 9-11 when my boss told us to be patriotic and go shopping? Well, I truly believed that a little retail therapy in a time of stress was a good thing for the economy and for the soul.
But a funny thing happened to me on my way to Jimmy Choo’s. I stumbled upon a bunch of old shoes in front of Hillary Clinton’s office on Third Avenue. I wondered if it was some kind of tag sale. But as I looked closer, I saw that each pair of shoes instead of having a price tag was labeled with the name and age of an Iraqi child.
A woman dressed all in fuchsia, with a pink statue of liberty crown on her head, explained that each pair of shoes represented a child who had been killed in Iraq. It was a CODEPINK: Women for Peace demonstration. I was told, it was part of a campaign called “Walk in Their Shoes.”
In that moment I had what my boss might call a conversion experience.
Suddenly it hit me. Between my high-powered job, my shoe shopping and my piano playing, I had never stopped to think about all the dead children in Iraq. I went to my hotel room, gathered up my shoes and ran back to Hillary’s office to donate them to the campaign.
So I’m writing to you now, a new woman, asking you to join me. Vote for peace candidates. Sign the Give Peace a Vote pledge. Organize a Walk in Their Shoes action in your community. Donate money to the campaign.
Let’s kick the heels out of office and fill their shoes with leaders who will bring our soldiers home!
Yours in sole and soul,
Condi Rice
P.S. Alright, so Condi didn’t actually have a pink conversion or write this letter, but if you want to see the White House turning pink, please help. We have over 70,000 signers of the peace pledge! Won’t you help us get to 100,000 by November 7 by signing and getting 5 friends to sign on?
Give Peace A Vote is featured on The Peace Team Site adding thousands of new pledges this week. The Peace Team is a group of nearly 50 candidates, who have taken our Peace Pledge. Many have produced some very hard-hitting TV spots directly confronting the Bush administration on the lies they used to invade Iraq. These Lie/Die ads are running right now. To see some of them playing as flash streams or to learn more about the Peace Team go to http://www.peaceteam.net.
Thank you, Janet
CodePink