As you may know, thanks to tampopo’s diary earlier this week, today (Friday) is the latest installment of Petals for Peace that was spearheaded by BooTribber Boston Joe. He and I exchanged emails earlier today and he gave me the green light to share some of his thoughts with you all on another form of nonviolent protest. I’ll post them below the fold, but here is the info to participate in today’s Peace Rally (also known as an antiwar protest)
WHEN: Deliver 9am to 5pm and/or gather between1:30 to 2:30 pm Friday August, 18th 2006.
WHERE: Outside Rep. Mike Rogers office, 1327 E. Michigan Avenue, Lansing, Michigan FAX (517) 702-8642.
WHO: Called by Greater Lansing Network Against War & Injustice
To order flowers for Friday’s Michigan Protest, call Bancroft Flowers as early as possible at (866) 476-8608. Carnations are the preferred symbol of this particular movement.
There is an active call to spread this movement to other congressional districts. Please consider targetting your local war-supporting Congressman or Senators. Please let the Petals for Peace folks know if you participate by emailing: glnawi2004@yahoo.com
BostonJoe’s words below the fold…
[snip]
Without blogs, at once I am less informed, but perhaps more connected. Having to deal in the reality that the other (non-blogging people) around me are dealing in. They have a whole other mindset. They have a whole other set of information (probably far less informed). It affect me. And my perceptions. But it makes me closer to them. It is like when I was a trial lawyer, and I needed to watch pop-TV just to be able to talk to juries. You have to know what is going on in their lives.
[snip]
But yesterday, reading the historians and left-wing economists of empire, and walking back on a bridge across the Red Cedar River, it dawned on me that my very first instinct may have been right. The revolution can come. It can come, just one person at a time. Because all America is, is a windbag drunken bully at a dive bar.
The idea is simple enough. Everything we are doing is reliant on mass consumption. It accounts for roughly 70% of our GDP. And our GDP is the thing that allows us to borrow and spend our way to the evil empire that we’ve become. It will probably fall of its own weight. That is my view, anyway. I’ve been waiting for years. And may wait forever and be wrong. But it would certainly collapse if the sheep awakened and stopped the consumption.
Each individual. In revolution. A revolution of simplicity. No violence. No need for protests in the streets (though they are fun and good). Just a decision. I will live simply. My family will live simply. I will only consume out of necessity. And even then, I will consume locally or second hand.
I don’t know at what number of people it would take to stop consuming in this way, before the economy started to feel the weight of it. I asked Jerome in Paris and Stirling Newberry and perhaps even Bondad these things once, though I think the question might be alarming to the less that radical mind. What is the number of people whose reduced consumption can cause the economy to falter? Who knows? But I believe that I am not alone. In feeling that the status quo is killing our biosphere. Not just a nation. Not just a race. Or a species. But perhaps the ability of all life to survive.
I think a lot of us feel like this. If you have the courage to ask strangers. Is there something wrong here? Where homeless people are dying from the heat in Phoenix. Where biogengineered grasses are spreading like wildfires. Where a southern city can lie in ruins from the power of one storm. Where zones of ocean fisheries are deoxygenated deserts of sterile death. Many people say yes. Because they have eyes and ears and hearts.
So if enough people hear a simple message. Stop consuming anything you don’t need. And it could all end tomorrow. A paper tiger could be wadded up and thrown in the basket. I think that is the way the revolution could happen.
I’ll attach my original thoughts on de-consuming. Take my thoughts and make them your own if you like. Share them as if your name was Che, if you have any mind to do so. Because I’m in hibernation. Or leave them right here where they were born. In an e-mail.
Well, I thought long and hard on the words my Brother in Peace shared with me and decided that his words rang true for the emotions I’ve been feeling lately.
Somethings gotta give, and perhaps I need to do more to make it happen. So here’s the De-Consuming for Democracy message, written for an email campaign. After I finish formatting this diary, I plan to send it off to friends and family who are sharing in my anguish at the state of our nation and world. After that, I begin my process of DeConsuming.
As I’ve written many times in RubDMC’s Daily Witness Diaries – Peace – it begins within
Here’s the torch, I hope you run with it. Paz amigos.
De-Consuming for Democracy is an e-mail organized form of non-violent protest. Its goal is regime change in the United States of America. George Bush has to go! And if you want to help stop him in 2004, then read on.
Bush needs to be removed from office. Here is why: 1) He was “elected” with less than a majority of votes under what can at best be called an election of questionable validity; 2) He has given gigantic tax breaks to corporations and the wealthiest U.S. citizens, and jeopardized the long term stability of our economy by racking up record budget deficits; 3) He gained support for a war of aggression against Iraq by lying to the American people, convincing them that Iraq presented an immediate threat against the U.S. through their development of WMD and their direct ties to Al Queada; 4) He launched a war of aggression against Iraq based on these lies, and in the process has damaged U.S. credibility around the world, in addition to killing thousands of innocent citizens in Iraq, and killing and injuring thousands of U.S. soldiers; 5) He chilled free speech and political dissent by labeling those who disagree with him as unpatriotic; and 6) He gutted federal environmental protections in favor of corporate industry.
Bush has used a national tragedy and an irresponsible spending binge to cynically manipulate public opinion in the U.S., to the point that the corporate media are already touting him as the victor in 2004. He will use any legitimate election in 2004 to further goals which are harmful to average Americans, and harmful to the standing of the U.S. in the world.
Can he be stopped?
Combining the power of e-mail, and some simple Macro Economics, we the voiceless masses might be able to bring down this tyrant.
First, spread the word. E-mail the message to every person you know.
Second, act individually to create conditions that will make Bush a vulnerable candidate. One of the single biggest factors in U.S. presidential election is the performance of the economy. (Bush knows this – consider the recent disclosures by Bob Woodward that Bush had an agreement with the Saudi government to try to bring oil prices down to $22- $28 per barrel in the months before the U.S. election in order to buoy our economy and re-elect Bush). Bush is selling our future through giant tax breaks, designed to give the economy an initial boost, but which will in the long run create a financially unsustainable environment with huge national debt.
We can combat this by slowing consumption. Consumer spending is by far the largest source of revenue to our national economy. Without you and I – the consumers – the economy collapses. Act individually by curtailing your consumer spending. Only buy what you need. Put off all non-essential purchases off until after the election in November. While individually, your actions have little impact, the collective effect of millions of anti-Bush patriots “De-Consuming” will slow the economy, and give some candidate who will restore Democracy a chance.
Stop Bush today. And everyday. Become a De-Consumer.
See you at the shopping mall after the election – when we will all be free again.
