"Our Brothers' Keepers?" Steep and Slippery Slopes at Asheville City Council

Nearly everyone in the crowded chambers stood, hand to heart to face the flag at the beginning of the July 10, 2007 Asheville City Council meeting. I kept my seat, as did a few others. Following that rote bow to nationalism with the Pledge of Allegiance, Mayor Bellamy gave the invocation, in the name of Jesus, beseeching a Father God to help the council "keep in mind that we are our brothers keepers." One would have to consider how "keeper," is defined to determine if that appeal to the patriarch was heeded.

Before the meeting I joined a group of 20 or so gathered in front of city hall led by the Revs. Amy Cantrell and Chrystal Cook of Zaccheaus House ministry. These advocates for the poor and immigrant of Asheville were also praying in the name of Jesus and holding various signs including DeCriminalize Homelessness Now, We Beg for Mental Health Care, Forgive us our Trespasses, and You Shall Not Oppress a Resident Alien.

"No matter what happens here tonight," Rev. Cantrell promised, "We're going to keep doing what we've been doing. We're going to feed each other. We're going to love each other. We're going to welcome each other..." The uniformed security man passing by on his way into City Hall spoke into his radio: "I'd say you'd better send reinforcements."

"The issue we are dealing with in Pritchard Park is vagrancy, not homelessness," Mayor Terry Bellamy declared, after listening to a Summary Report from the Community Forum on Homelessness presented by two out-of-town student interns and the assistant to the City Manager Lauren Bradley. The report seemed skewed to support predetermined conclusions and plans of action, particularly the idea of programming in Pritchard Park, a place that Councilman Carl Mumpower called an "island sanctuary for people who misbehave." To quote the report: "Among the most commonly cited [downtown social issues] were public drunkenness, feeding in Pritchard Park, disruptive behavior in the park and litter. Through staff contact with the Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce/Tourism Development Authority, concerns about downtown panhandling have also been raised."

"We are being exploited by a group of vagrant predatory people who are hiding behind a mask of being homeless," city councilman Carl Mumpower pronounced in his authoritative tone with characteristically smooth delivery. He rejected any ideas of park redesign. "No money until we get control."

Other council members were in general support of increased enforcement of laws and increased park programming.

Mayor Bellamy said she had observed "some who actually have a place to live in Asheville but choose to come downtown and hang out."

Imagine that!

"It is critical we address the vagrancy issues," Bellamy asserted, "and clean-up down town. Do we have more trash cans coming?" she asked. She also brought up the issue of alternative sentencing, fines, and development of a "nuisance court."

Mumpower warned, "When you come to Asheville either behave, get help or go to jail." He suggested both a work program and a tent jail. Councilman Bryan Freeborn asked for more police presence during peak use hours. The Committee formed to address issues at Pritchard Park was instructed to go forward and look at "programming and programming only." The council acknowledged the presence of certain "service providers" without acknowledging the Revs. Cantrell and Cook who were seated in the chambers.

The council then turned its attention to immigrants.

"Illegal immigration is a form of cultural terrorism," Mumpower asserted, comparing the presence of undocumented workers to the so-called "vagrants" in Pritchard Park. He called for empowerment of local police as federal agents through training under section 287G of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). A chilling prospect, indeed. If such a request were to pass, we would provide the Asheville police with even more residents to chase: The so-called "vagrants" in our city parks, the pesky demonstrators who stand on street corners protesting crime in the highest offices of the land, and the undocumented immigrants among us. Truly, Asheville will be "our brothers' keeper" if Mr.Mumpowers'suggestion gains support. Our brother's will be kept in tent jails, or county lock-ups, or held on ICE detention awaiting deportation.

After the break, and responding to my call for clarification of just what council means by the term "vagrant," Mayor Bellamy declared that the "conversation about vagrancy was not meant to eliminate vagrants, but the illegal activities vagrants are doing." And Mr. Mumpower added, "we're not going after vagrancy, but vagrancy plus behaviors."

Then Council turned to the issue of steep slope development with the tedious charts and complex formulas presented by the planning department for slope and elevation and grading combinations. It was all too confusing for me. Heather Rayburn commented "The people making money off us not having strong regulation are the people influencing policy." She directed her comments to a businessman from the "Mountain Council for Accountable Development," or some such misnomer. Councilman Mumpower asserted "We do not own this land, it's owned by people. Its an investment in their future. ...[restrictions amount to] taking property rights away from owners to save the view for those who already have theirs." The woman seated beside me remarked, "I argue for property rights even though it kills me to see what is going on in these mountains." Its probably best to look up the Asheville Citizen-Times report to find out just what council decided on this issue.

At 10 p.m., Council chambers were still filled with "Let Asheville Vote" folks. It was a petition I gladly signed. Whatever the intention of the Democrats on council who pushed for Partisan elections, as an Independent voter I am offended by the process and the resulting burden put on third party candidates. I was interested in hearing Mr. Mumpowers presentation on the issue, just as I wanted to hear the Let Asheville Vote people speak to their concerns. Councilwoman Cape surprised me by attempting to prohibit the public from speaking on the issue, calling it "a waste of time for the community," because, she said, the City Attorney had advised "in a confidential memo," that "there is nothing we can do to change the outcome of our vote." She continued, "My understanding is that once council sets the ball in motion, there is no way to change course." As she turned to the City Attorney for backup he began stammering and mumbling. Finally saying that there is "not much guidance in this area."

Mayor Bellamy seemed confused with Councilwoman Cape's assertion. "Outside in the hall you told me you wanted to pull it," she said. The process became confused and Mr. Mumpower began presenting his Powerpoint outline of his take on why the move to partisan elections was wrong. Mayor Bellamy, attempting to make a "point of Order" went back and forth with Mumpower, who would not budge from his intent to continue with the presentation. "You're just makin' it hard for me Carl," Bellamy entreated, indicating she had not been provided a copy of the presentation prior to the meeting.
Finally, Bellamy declared "You have over-stepped my ability to defend you. I am going to rule it out of order...We have a procedure..." Mumpower still would not budge,"If you would show it to me I would be happy to adhere to it."
Bellamy's frustration was apparent in the face of an obdurate Mumpower. "your disrespect for me is obvious." she said. It was a difficult power play to observe.

Despite the high drama, the hour was late for biking home, and by the time the floor was open to the public comments on the issue I had to take my leave. One comment I did hear, from a Democratic Precinct Chair who actually seemed to favor the move to Partisan elections, seemed to speak my mind on the issue: "The process ...went too fast. It looks bad."

Those who offer their services on city council open themselves to scrutiny and criticism and are faced with complex and divisive issues. This meeting was certainly an indication of that. I hope that this city, with all the pressures of growth and development and the influx of extraordinary wealth in the midst of inexcusable social injustice, will remember the simple words of Rev. Amy Cantrell "We're going to feed each other. We're going to love each other. We're going to welcome each other..." And I hope that when we pledge our allegiance it is not to a flag under whose colors we occupy and invade other lands, but to the people who must find a way to live together; allegiance not to a nation gone astray, but to our blessed and endangered Earth.

graphic lifted

"Change or Explode"

Atlanta was hot, hot, hot at the U. S. Social Forum last weekend. Among the many thousands gathered "to organize and politicize, to strategize and mobilize" were climate change activists, CoDe Pink women sharing strategies of feisty political action, the Welfare Queens doing poetry and drama, ADAPT folk taking to the streets in motorized wheelchairs or leading workshops on issues of poverty and exclusion. Communists, Socialists, Anarchists, Greens, Democrats, Libertarians, Pacifists, and Hip Hop. Trans and Two-Spirited folk, and queer visibility advocates asking "that our allies say our name." Indigenous tribal elders from Hawaii to Alaska and more representing tribal lands throughout the Americas came to speak of the prophesies and to issue warnings. Communitarians and vegetarians, prison & execution abolitionsts, mountain top removal activists carrying the huge banner: "U.S. Out of Appalachia," and water rights folk covered by the grass roots media in the Ida B. Wells media justice center, and popular education workers, labor unions and church groups: unitarians and quakers and others who are waking up to the devastation of Biblical tyranny over the natural world. 9-11 conspiracy theorists with videos and charts, and war-tax refusers calling for disobedience. Immigrant rights workers telling the truth of ICE raids, and sanctuary churches opening their doors. Playback theater actors from Asheville expressing the people's stories, while singers and drummers and dancers and stilt-walking puppeteers took to the streets.

Professional peace organizers sat with tables of papers and books, and street people with the authentic voice of struggle called for housing and dignity in a city, like ours, where it has been made a crime to ask for help. Katrina survivors were out in force condemning the "non-profit industrial complex," and demanding that they be heard and provided the means to help themselves, while helicopters hovered overhead and speakers talked of this "mercenary country organized in the interest of global corporations."

"We come to Atlanta, birthplace of Martin Luther King, Jr. thirsty to know what to do," one speaker declared. Folks from around the globe joined with U.S. activists from everywhere and every issue raising our voices against imperial wars and economic oppression, of justice denied, delayed, and obstructed. "A new world is possible. A new world is necessary," was the theme and "Our fight is your fight" the spirit.

The beautiful diversity of style, size, age, dress, color, class, gender and origin was stunning. A young Indian woman wore the shirt, "Gandhi is my homeboy." Palestinians "from behind the 8 meter walls that ghettoize us," chanted "Free, free Palestine. Apartheid Wars are a crime." Chinese Progressives reported on the 70,000 protests happening in China and taught the chant: "Sen Chi, Sen Yi. Mayan's spoke of the power of dreams and Civil rights leaders echoed the voice of Martin Luther King, Jr., while young and impatient voices with no faith in the power of nonviolence, with raised fist decried the corporatocracy.

It felt like walking through a lava field where the cracks are widening and the searing liquid of "fired up, can't take it no more," is bubbling through, up and out to spill into the streets, as we did, marching, chanting, singing, demanding justice. We know The world can't wait, as one slogan asserts. We know that the ballot box in this country of stolen elections is not bringing enough change, not the real and lasting change we must have now.

We know that when the movement is singing together again, as the folks from Highlander Center asserted, that we are coming together, as we must. "Look around, We're the one's we've been waiting for," folks repeated many times over.

C.T. Vivian, the Civil Rights hero who has never stopped speaking and acting for justice, pleaded that we "Dream no little dreams, because little dreams don't have the power to move revolutionaries..." And expressing what so many present in hot, hot, hot Atlanta know: that it can and does happen here, Vivian told the assembly, "We're closer to fascism than we've ever been." This icon of civil rights, who survived bombs and jailings and beatings and all the horrors of racism, knows of what he speaks. "If this nation can be changed on the powerful issue of racism," he said, "it can be changed on economic issues."

"What must become clear to us, totally clear. The world knows, if we can move America the whole world can move."

Si se puede!

Graphic lifted from: Cafefresno

On the ground Atlanta, US Social Forum

Checking in from Atlanta and the US Social Forum. I'm in the Ida B. Wells media justice center, accessing a computer and Internet connection to post from the media center in the bowells of the civic center. We thousands completed a two hour march through Atlanta's streets, chanting, singing, calling for change. "Another World is Possible," is a theme here. Its a fiesty group of activists and organizers from all over the U.S. and from global justice movements.

I walked for a while with Ted Glick of the Climate Crisis Coalition. We talked as we held the banner between us: " No More War, No More Warming." I last walked with Ted along an Alabama highway with the Living the Dream 2006 walk from Selma to Fort Benning, Ga. Now, back in Georgia, marching in the extreme heat from the Capitol to the Civic Center.

The variety of issues and concerns represented here are staggering and workshops are ongoing for the next three-four days, listed in a 112 page catalog.

Already, this first night, has been "A Political Homecoming" as one of the organizers said when we arrived, hot, tired and proud, at the end point of the march. It was good to see Bruce Gagnon, who I first met with the Florida Coalition for Peace & Justice decades ago, now here, still working on the issues of weapons in space.

Asheville is well represented, especially with folks from Mountain Justice Summer, Katuah Earth First and PlayBack Theatre.

The plenary session tonight will include civil rights icon Rev. C. T. Vivian, and blessings from indigeoous people. Representatives from the Southeast's original nations will bless the space.

So I'm off to join in. But glad to connect here with this revolutionary approach to journalism as a media blogger at the US Social Forum.

We, the People, Say: Stop Torture Now

The line that connects the bombing of civilian populations to the mountain removed by strip mining ... to the tortured prisoner seems to run pretty straight. We're living, it seems, in the culmination of a long warfare -- warfare against human beings, other creatures and the Earth itself. ~ Wendell Berry

There were several new faces today a the weekly Veterans for Peace vigil in downtown Asheville.

Connie Nash of the group Transylvanians for Peace stood with us, just across from Vance Monument, where the public square remains little more than a vacant dirt lot. Connie reminded me that today is End Torture day.

The vote to close the U.S. Army School of the Americas failed by just six votes this week. That place is where the torturers were trained who perpetrated the atrocities in the U.S's dirty little wars in Latin America. SOA Watch is a persistent human rights group. Its a long haul struggle.
Folks in North Carolina at the NC Stop Torture Now group are finding that all roads lead to Fort Bragg.

Someone tore down the double-sided billboard maintained by Veterans for Peace Chapter 99. The sign prominently displayed the cost of this War in money and deaths, and called for Impeachment. Jim got the call that someone was pulling down the billboard, but it was on the ground and the culprit had fled in his blue pick up with a ladder rack by the time he arrived.

Today, after our hour at the corner across from the BB&T, we paraded down with signs in hand to the tiny park on Hilliard, across from the back of the Orange Peel, where the billboards have been repaired and replaced. We circled and sang and remembered the lives lost in this crimnial war. Lyle Peterson, President of the VFP Asheville Chapter spoke, tears welling, of the wasted lives and the betrayal of their sacrifice in this war based on lies.

Tomorrow I'm off to the U.S. Social Forum in Atlanta. Workshops, speakers, music, theatre, marching and remembering that it is We, The People, who are the deciders and we've been asleep far to long while the thieves, and torturers, and liars have prevailed. Charlie King, a fine folk singer, once said: America is like a melting pot. The people on the bottom get burned while the scum rises to the top.

Its time, past time, for We, the people, to rise.

Stone Soup on the French Broad

With bare feet dangling in the the cool river water, I settled back on the round blue vinyl tube for a river time float from the Solstice celebration at Hominy Creek park to the take-out point at Southern Waterways. This relaxing opportunity was one of many free offerings at the first ever Solstice gathering at Hominy Creek park in West Asheville. The park itself was a surprise. I didn't even know it was there, and the hundred or more folks who came to celebrate the coming of summer seemed as appreciative as I was for the non-commercial, community building and skills-sharing that happened during a very laid back afternoon. It was a great way to welcome the summer. The gathering ended with a large circle around several huge pots of soup made from vegetable offerings brought by most everyone who came. There was plenty for all.

Today its a quiet Sunday in a neighborhood that is more often assaulted with the whine of electric saws. The houses all around are being overhauled, moving them from the almost affordable market to high-priced housing for newly arriving gentry. But my beans are coming on strong, their growing tips waving skyward beyond the fence, just as the peas seem to have given out. The poppies are still blooming bright, the same one's my well-missed neighbor Frankie loved during her 65 years' in the now-empty house next door. I'm sipping lemon balm tea (for longevity, they say) and have been working my way through a file drawer of accumulated writings, saved clippings, old letters...

Life is like a river, as Doc Watson sings, and like a river, floating along in the current is much more pleasant if one doesn't get too awfully tangled up in clutter from old roots and useless debris.

Mr. Mumpower's Compassion Deficit Disorder

Councilman Mumpower has an obvious compassion deficit. Now he is asking folks with cameras to patrol Pritchard Park looking for incidents of "vagrant misbehavior." It is a mean-spirited and highly intrusive effort to further criminalize the unhoused poor and the untreated addicts who gather there, among many others. This city councilman has already attempted to ride the wave of public fear and misinformation about undocumented immigrants and certain classes of illegal drug users. Perhaps he feels a fiscal responsibility to fill the cells in the new downtown jail where the County Sheriff claims the missing guns are hidden in the concrete walls. Why is it that he targets the least powerful residents of Asheville in his crazed crusades? Though he does so in the guise of fighting crime, he is tragically off mark.

Many of those who gather in Pritchard Park have been kicked to the curb in this wealthy city where there are few enough places for the unhoused to go where one is not subjected to public scrutiny, censure and shaming. Despite all your efforts at grandstanding in this failed war on drugs, Mr. Mumpower, you are doing a grave disservice to the people of Asheville. Addiction is a public health issue. The real crime is the theft of truly affordable housing--not the formula definition that serves developers and is out of reach of the working poor. The real shame is the denial of prompt, adequate and accessible treatment for health problems such as drug addiction and mental illness. The wealthy residents, whose downtown condominiums perhaps don't insulate them as much as they may like from the distressing evidence of the widening chasm in this city between the owning class and the dispossessed, are complaining. Perhaps they should practice a bit more right sharing of resources and contribute some of their excess to programs of social uplift, rather than efforts to denigrate and exclude. I notice that the downtown Asheville residential neighbors group is calling for a re-design of Pritchard Park. I think a redesign of our concepts of justice might better serve the city.

The Revs. Amy and Chrystal of Zacchaeus House bring their faith into action to stand in solidarity and to open the circle of compassion to include those most reviled, most despised, most vulnerable among us. I was proud to stand with them yesterday to say to Mr. Mumpower: your call for cameras is mean- spirited harassment. We call on the higher minded residents of Asheville to take action to support relationships, recovery and reconciliation, not ridicule and harassment.

Woe to those who enact unjust statutes and who write oppressive decrees, depriving the needy of justice and robbing my people's poor of their rights ... Isaiah

A Bicycle Brigade with Buckets of Coal: Confronting the Root Causes of Climate Change

The garden is gasping for water, but holding on. The rains offer only a few minutes of moisture then the clouds move on. Its hazy out and the air is muggy and heavy with car exhaust and other toxins. Nonetheless, I pedaled up Lexington Ave. and on to the City Hall today to pay my water bill. It was a big one, and I've hardly watered the garden at all.

I sat in the shade under the lone tree by the Pack museum until 5 p.m, waiting to stand with Women in Black. About that time, a few dozen bicyclists came round the corner, a critical mass ride from Aston Park. Now I'm not one to miss a chance to re-claim some road space from the SUVs, so I jumped back on my bike and joined them, up and down hills around town. Most of the 20 or so in the fast-paced ride, were much younger than I, but I held my own...

Rounding Pritchard Park the lead bicycles stopped at the doors of Bank of America. We all pulled up along the sidewalks as a young man read a statement demanding that Bank of America stop funding climate change. Some folks handed out leaflets explaining the connection, while others dumped buckets filled with coal on the entrance walkway--A fitting symbolic action, harming no one. The same cannot be said for the business practices of Bank of America. The corporation has facilitated nearly $1 billion in loans to Massey Energy and Arch Coal, both are companies who blast off the tops of mountains to extract thin seams of coal, permanently destroying as much as 500 square miles of the Southern Appalachian mountains ...

Bringing a little coal to the doorsteps of those complicit in such crimes against the Earth might help to alert a few folks to the dark truth of corporate profiteering. I remember during my time in a West Virginia prison watching the trains, each 100 cars long, and filled with coal, that passed every day of my six month sentence.

A few buckets of coal left behind by a brigade of bicyclists on the International Day of Action Against Climate Change is a mild enough response to climate changes that threaten species extinction, drought, and other extremes of weather, death and displacement of millions. Supporting Bank of America with business and deposits is supporting mountain-top removal in the Southern Appalachians and strip mining on native lands in Arizona by the notorious Peabody Coal.

By the time a pedaled back to hold up one end of the banner with Women in Black, 3-4 police cars, followed by a fire engine, were screaming through the streets to the sight of the crime. They blocked traffic for a half hour or so, and removed most of the coal, leaving only a walkway blackened with coal dust.

And still, the lone drivers, riding high in their SUVs scream out as the bicyclists pass..."don't get in my way..."

Of Paris Hilton, Cindy Sheehan, Depelted Uranium and poppies in bloom

Rain! Its just a drizzle, but cooling. A tease for the dry, dry ground.

I returned to Asheville this week after a visit to Dallas-Ft.Worth area with friends and family. The bus journey was 27 hours, one way. I took the more southern route home from Dallas, Tex. to Shreveport, La., Jackson, Miss., Birmingham, Ala., Atlanta, Ga. and Knoxville, Tenn., and enjoyed the new vistas. As usual, I breathed a sigh of relief at the sight of these old, dear mountains of North Carolina. Coming home. Coming home.

My garden was blooming when I arrived, despite the lack of rain. The sage and poppies were the most lovely, and the red clover profuse. I had 9 full heads of broccoli ready for eating, lettuce and mustard greens, and little peas on the pod. There was a lone peony rose left on the bush and a few Iris still. Gardening is my first love.

On my Greyhound journeys I see so many men and women, coming and going with the military. Some looking very, very tired, others fresh and ready for their first adventure away from home. My seat mate from Dallas to Atlanta, a Black farmer who had just had to sell his land, was going to a small Georgia town to see about his brother who had returned from two tours in Iraq. "He's messed up," the man told me, "and really sick with that poison they use over there." It was probably the depleted uranium, a poison that does not discriminate between soldiers or civilians, from one generation to the next. This war will be killing for a long, long, time.

Cindy Sheehan is stepping back from the spotlight. It is wise of her to lift the weight from her weary shoulders. It serves no one when we do violence to ourselves and to our family with relentless activism. But in my 25 years of trying, as Cindy has tried, to end wars I also was not able to keep the healthy balance. The situation is urgent and so many are asleep. It took me a long time to learn the lessons of the long haul commitment. It is hard to stand athwart this filthy, rotten system, hard to stand up and speak out day after day, hard to endure the consequences, emotionally, financially, and personally, when we withdraw our support from a system that crushes indiscriminately and in so many insidious ways.

So God bless you, Cindy. You bloomed brightly despite the drought of support. Arm chair applause from those who cheered you from the sidelines, or jumped in to ride the wave, was not enough, and the heat of the media spotlight is withering. We all have to take part in this, sometimes leading, sometimes following, sometimes reflecting and resting. Take your time.

Good Morning America called me yesterday. They wanted my opinion on how it would be for Paris Hilton in a California County jail. I had to laugh. These media folks know so little about our systems of incarceration. They must have seen mention of my book, Jailed for Justice: A Woman's Guide to Federal Prison Camp. I referred them on to other activists in California. The producer, her name was Desiri, didn't seem to have any interest in the other 2.3 million locked away in this filthy, rotten system.

St. Lawrence park

It's noon and the bells of St. Lawrence are tolling a familiar hymn. My well indoctrinated mind fills in the words I sang in choir so very long ago: "Come Holy Ghost, Creator blest, and in our hearts take up thy rest. Come with thy grace and heavenly aid and fill the hearts which thou hast made," or some such lyric.

I'm always amazed at how much I've retained from those parochical years. But, despite my having chosen a different, less dogmatic road, the bells bring me to pause-- if I'm in the garden shovel in hand, or at the computer with papers strewn across the desktop, or pedaling my way up the hill on the Flint Street bridge enroute to town.

It would be such a grace to this city if that wasteland of parking lot and asphalt at the crown of the hill could become a green oasis, for trees, benches and walking paths. Reroute the cars, reroute the minds of the city planners that seem able to see nothing but commerce and profit where the greenly, living, healing trees and flowers should be given a chance. It would bring a bit of heaven on earth, so to speak, if wiser hearts were to prevail and we gain a park.

Others are calling for this sane alternative to the concrete. Check out the coming ad in Mountain Xpress to learn more. Or go to the website Imagine St. Lawrence Green to see how you can help. In the meantime, throw some seed around in every crack and crevice, park your car before you come into the heart of Asheville, ride the bus, walk or bicycle the rest of the distance, and stop complaining about scarce parking, that just feeds the argument for car parks not people parks.

Know Your Rights: A Town Hall Conversation

Harvard educated New Yorker King Downing, national coordinator of the Campaign Against Racial Profiling, facilitated a remarkable conversation at the "Know Your Rights Town Hall Meeting" held Sunday at the North Asheville Library. Dowining was skilled at drawing out conversations on difficult issues and in letting the meeting unfold in an organic way. He listened and offered suggestions and support as, one after another, mostly people of color began to tell their stories of racial profiling and other forms of discrimination experienced from Asheville area law enforcement.

"People talk about 'outside agitators,'" Downing quipped, "but law enforcement is working together now on the state, local and national level. ...We have to stop being divided and conquered and come together as one group."

"Know Your Rights Town Hall Meetings" are being held throughout the country to encourage and collect testimony from individuals victimized by racial profiling. About 30 people gathered for the initial meeting, including representatives from various human rights advocacy groups around town. Azadeh N. Shahshahani, the Muslim/Middle Eastern Community Outreach Coordinator of the ACLU of North Carolina Legal Foundation, asserted that under the Constitution of the USA everyone, regardless of citizenship, has certain inalienable rights. The town hall meetings are an attempt to bring "practical information and hope back to the community."

Several Latino persons spoke and indicated that many in their community were afraid to come forward. Oscar, a young immigrant from Mexico who works in West Asheville, offered himself as a volunteer, "not just to come to a meeting, but to find a way to point a finger at the aggressors."

"We're victims of discrimination every day. Discrimination by the police and by our bosses. Every day. ...I respect and admire the work here, but tomorrow when I go back to work, all of this is going to seem very outside my reality. My community has become used to living under fear--fear is something that has become normal to us."

Downing challenged the group to action: "We have to take time and decide what our rights are worth. What are we willing to do about these violations? We have to start taking a minimum effort to document these problems...to build a record...a history of complaints against officers."

Danielle Fernandez, an immigrant advocate, and member of the We Are One America Committee explained the process: "We're going to take action. We're going to take this information and sit down with representatives of Buncombe County, the Asheville City Council, and the Police Department. ...If they know that we are watching them, they will be a little more cautious."

To learn more about the campaign or to share an incident of profiling, please contact: ACLU-NC Legal Foundation, (919) 834-3466.

Close Enough to Throw a Stone

Yesterday morning I enjoyed an early walk to the civic center to observe the meeting of the volunteer committee charged with making recommendations for Pritchard Park. Much of the first hour was taken up with discussion about committee structure. Adam Puttman, who seemed uncomfortable in his facilitator role, proposed the addition of an 11th member, a former city planner and downtown resident living across from the park. The candidate was present at the meeting with his wife. Puttman said this was a request from City Council. Committtee-member Julie Brandt expressed concern that she had received no communication of such a request from council, and she thought the Committee size should remain at ten. Amy Cantrell noted that there were significant constituent groups not present at the table. She suggested that if an 11th person were to be appointed, it should be someone from a group not already well represented, such as someone over 65, or differently abled, or of African American heritage. There was quite a lot of back and forth discussion, attempts to clarify proposals, motions made, amended and seconded. A late arrival to the committee table interrupted to clarify a point of order, as the process was becoming confused. Some observers in attendance became angry, interrupting the committee. Some walked out. Not much patience with Democracy at work. Finally, the matter came to a vote. The motion, as amended was restated: To communicate to City Council that Committee is confident to move forward with the ten present members, that they will use focus groups to actively solicit input from those who are not represented, and that if Council wants to add an 11th member, candidates should be considered from unrepresented constituents, such as those persons over 65, African American, or differently abled. The motion carried 8-2. Dissenting votes were from Putman and Chavarra. I had to leave for an appointment before the public comment period.

Asheville downtown has too few parks and non-commercial public spaces. Pritchard Park gets a lot of foot traffic. I was surprised to learn from a report back from a city staff person that the mulch is refreshed only once a year, and that trampled plants are not being replanted, and that the water fountains were turned off because of the cost of replacing filters clogged with debris, though apparently two city workers were said to spend 2-3 hours daily cleaning the park. Some powerful folks are pushing to clean out the park, but such a sweep should not include the people who congregate there, unless they are violent, abusive and otherwise violating public safety. A public park should remain just that: public. We have to face the reality that this boom town includes the poor, dispossessed, homeless, addicted, mentally ill, and others who who do not always comport themselves in the manner peculiar to the well to do.

I signed in at the meeting as a media blogger with my web address and home address. The more I consider this form of citizen reporting the more it agrees with my style. I simply do not want to pretend I don't have an opinion on current events. I do like the Democracy of the blogosphere and hope to become a more regular participant.

On another note, I received an anonymous comment on a year-old blog posting yesterday afternoon. The writer said "I live close enough to throw a stone at your house." Ah, well. I had expressed some fury in that post at the neighborhood dogs who were particularly aggravating with incessant barking late into the night. So I hope no stones come flying my way. I'll probably just get earplugs this season, as the dog population is on the rise and the whining intrusion of electric saws and power mowers is back in season. But as for posting anonymous comments, I don't think so.

But today, the rain is steady and sure, with soothing sounds as it fills my rain barrels and soaks the garden.

We Are One America: A call to your conscience

I had a brief wait at the corner of Flint and Cherry street last night where I stood to meet a ride to Calvary Baptist Church in West Asheville. The church was the site of one of eight May 1 vigils held in Western North Carolina and organized by the immigrant rights group We Are One America Committee. Last year the group organized a huge parade through Asheville, but the city charged so much in permit fees for this right to assemble that the ACLU sued.

Charlie was out on his evening walk and we had a few minutes to catch up before my friend Geri of International Link arrived. I last saw Charlie as he was video taping the Buncombe County Commissioners public hearing on Zoning, and I know he is active in efforts to make a green park out of the city-owned land bordered by the Civic Center, St. Lawrence Cathedral, and an old parking garage.

But back to the immigrant gathering. I definitely knew I was in the right place that evening: soft breezes, a full moon rising, and the company of folks asserting their human dignity, despite a climate of hatred and ignorance that surrounds the issue of immigration.

Bob Smith was there, of the Asheville-Buncombe Community Relations Council, and Rev. Amy Cantrell and friends from Zacheaus House, working to keep Pritchard Park open to all. Minnie Jones lent her powerful presence to the scene and also Russell Hilliard, pastor emeritus of the Fountain of Life First Hispanic Baptist Church of Asheville and a long-time advocate of immigrant rights, whose poem The illegals was read at the event.

Dr. Buddy Corbin, hosting the gathering on the grounds of the century-old Calvary Baptist Church was telling Bob Smith "We got some threats here today," referring to a series of phone calls that he said began about 4 p.m.
"Churches ought to always be in trouble," Bob replied, "So folks will know they're doing their job."

In his remarks to the 100 or so who gathered, Corbin called the U.S. "God's special land," where many present had "risked life and left loved ones to find prosperity, religious freedom and a happy, healthy and hopeful life....I implore you to learn English as I am trying to learn Spanish,"
he concluded.

Oscar, a young Hispanic man on the organizing committee (whose last name I did not record,) told the crowd that the reason for the vigil is because, "unfortunately there are a lot of people who are afraid of going on the streets and raising our voices. They are afraid of being deported. ...We didn't sign any Free Trade Agreement. We are here trying to provide for our families. Making money here doesn't mean we are happy in this country. I don't like to be in a country where people put up barriers against me, people who don't know the real problem," he said. "People who oppose immigrants are fighting against the wrong enemy." They ought to direct their voices toward the government, he advised. "they are the people who are deporting, they are the ones who signed the Free Trade Agreement, they are the puppets of the big companies. ...They dare to separate families, break dreams and make orphans. What we ask for is more tolerance."

There was music, but the occasion was more solemn than festive. More ritual than demonstration. Everyone present lit a candle from a large flame, passing the light from one to the other. Lighting the fire to symbolize "the fire we have inside, the faith we have that everything is going to change and we will have a future as immigrants."
It was the right place to be, for me, that evening, and I share the view expressed by one of the speakers: "For the other side of America, to those who don't love us--this is a call to your conscience.

Photo Credit: Caught in the act as an emerging "media blogger/citizen reporter." Asheville-Citizen times photographer John Coutlakis.

Kucinich in Asheville--" It's From the Heart and It's the Truth!"

It would not be enough just to say that Dennis Kucinich connected with the hundreds gathered last night at UNCA, and again, in a smaller numbers, at the YMI Cultural Center. The feeling I had as I listened to his words and felt his compassion and conviction was more an opening into hope--hope in a possible future for America that has for so long seemed impossible to recover. He was disarmed and disarming as he moved among us, with sustained eye contact, handshakes and hugs... And he really listened to our concerns.

Kucinich believes we can reclaim this country and he had us on our feet numerous times, wildly cheering, applauding, stomping our feet, exclaiming "Yes, Yes, Yes!"

City Councilman Brian Freeborn was there, on the platform with the Buncombe County Young Democrats. "He will make you think really hard about where you stand pollitically," Freeborn said. " He is a real person...think about what he tells you tonight. It's real, from the heart and it's the truth."

Brian is right. Dennis Kucinich greeted the audience warmly, with palms together and a slight bow, before launching into a convincing, empowering, believable and encouraging oration. His opening questions: "Are we ready to create a nation that reconnects America with our highest ideals? ...that rejects war as an instrument of policy...[that provides] healthcare, jobs, education for all? ...

Yes. Yes. Yes. He had the audience, leaning forward in rapt attention, from the moment he stepped into view.

But what brought nearly all of us to our feet with sustained applause more than once was his call to hold accountable the President and Vice President, and to restore the authority of the International Criminal Court. Kucinich called for a "tidal wave of justice" that washes away corruption, a repeal of the U.S. Patriot Act, a repeal of the Military Commissions Act.

"Habeas Corpus must be reinstated, people must have due process in the criminal justice system. Those who led us to war on a lie should, themeselves, be subject to due process of law!"

Yes. Yes. Yes.

I was deeply touched, and challenged to compassion by his answer to the young man at the microphone who wanted to know, "What did you say to President Bush when you touched his shoulder as he passed by at the State of the Union address?

"Mr. President, I wish you peace." Kucinich replied.

"Under all circumstances we have to, in the moment, be willing to reconcile with people with whom we have most profound differences," this rare politician, this man of integrity, this authentic and compassionate teacher responded. Then he quipped: "The next time I saw him I gave him a copy of my plan to get out of Iraq!"

Gated Parks and Private Profit

With dirt under my fingernails I put my shovel aside and left my garden to hop on the back of friend Jim's motorcycle. We were off to City Hall for the Save the PicNic Campaign rally. Rev. Amy Cantrell of Zacchaeus House, a hospitality center for the poor and dispossessed of Asheville, was speaking. (Hear an earlier interview about her work with this issue on WPVM.)

Amy's advocacy and passion remind me of my own, during my work among the homeless at ASAP in St. Petersburg 20 years ago. The problems here are much the same: attempts by the powerful and influential to enforce economic apartheid, to hide the face of poverty, to minimize the systemic causes while emphasizing the personal problems that keep people on the street.

Amy was eloquently asserting the human dignity of the poor, standing with her friends from the street, and rising to resist efforts of downtown business investors to eject the homeless from Pritchard Park, to make the sharing of food in the park illegal, and to sanitize the view for tourists and others who find the face of poverty unpleasant.

I don't like public drunkenness, I don't like being approached for money as I walk through town, and I am uncomfortable sitting in a littered city park smelling of urination. But I don't want exclusionary laws enacted that make it a crime to ask for help; I don't want laws that make it a crime to share food freely in a public space; I don't want selective enforcement of public drunkeness laws among the homeless (who have no home to return to) while Asheville bars and restaurants and public festivals encourage and profit every day from alcohol sales (and most of these drinkers drive home.)

Earlier in the week I answered a call from Zacchaeus House to help with park clean up. The majority of the litter is ciggarette butts. But there were no ashtrays or containers in sight. So we bent to the task. Pritchard Park is not the only place where such litter is scattered. It's everywhere on every street throughout town. Its not just the homeless dropping ciggarette butts. I want to see Pritchard Park continue as a gathering place for all people, and I realize all of us who value the park must work to keep it a safe and pleasant environment where everyone feels welcome, is welcome, and participates in the non-commercial, community- building events that can bridge our class and economic differences: drumming, dancing, sharing a pic-nic, listening to stories, playing chess. . .

I was glad to hear Mayor Bellamy announce that two public bathrooms will open in downtown Asheville. Its a beginning. I am happy too, that Rev. Amy, and a person who has experienced life on the streets, will be included in the group appointed by the city to address concerns in Pritchard Park. I'm glad the city council is willing to listen. More treatment centers are needed to assist the mentally ill and the drug addicted. These tormented souls are not helped in jail and prison beds, nor is it right if they are left to fend for themselves on the streets. I wish greed-driven real-estate transactions were not driving the working poor out of the city. I wish compassion and community building were the dominant values in Asheville rather than profit and plunder. Feeding in the park is not enabling as councilman Mumpower suggested, it is community building, it is compassion in action.

Last Sunday, as I strolled by on an afternoon walk, I caught the eye of the Chief of Police enjoying brunch at a sidewalk cafe, just across the street from Pritchard Park.
It seems everyone, whatever their staus and role in this community, enjoys sharing a meal outside in the park.

Pritchard Park doesn't need to be re-designed as the new owner of the Miles Building (who priced out long-term tenants) suggests. The city spent $638,000 to do that in 2001. Those in Asheville who would attempt to sweep away the visible evidence of poverty, addiction, exploitive wages and out- of-reach housing costs to further the illusion that all is well in Asheville must be challenged. Amy and friends serve meals at 9:15 a.m. each Sunday.

And Deliver Us From Evil

I learned this morning that my friend Patrick O'Neil, his 12-year old daughter Moira, 16-year old Ellen Biesack, and adults Frank Coyle, Steve Woolford, Scott Bass, Josh McIntyre, Barbara Zelter, and Isabel Marcusson, were arrested yesterday at Aero Contractors in Smithfield, North Carolina, and charged with trespass.

The are part of the group NC Stop Torture Now, that has been attempting for some time to bring about an investigation into the Aero Contractors torture flights out of the Johnston County airport and the Kinston Jetport, managed by Global TransPark Authority and funded by the N.C. state government. Aero Contractors is target of an ACLU lawsuit that alleges they and two other private companies were involved with the CIA-led extraordinary rendition and torture of a German citizen, Khaled El-Masri in 2004.

In February, the WNC Chapter of the ACLU presented an information session and video at UNCA titled "From Global to Local: Challenging Torture Flights & Other Abuses of Power." The arrests yesterday are part of the ongoing efforts by concerned citizens to compel Governor Easley to investigate Aero Contractors, and hold the company accountable for any illegal activity it may be involved with.

These weren't the first arrests for the group that attempted to deliver arrest warrants for three of the Aero pilots charged by the German government for their part in the "extraordinary rendition." According to press reports, the warrants demanded that the management of Aero Contractors direct three of its employees to surrender to the FBI. The protesters carried banners and crime-scene tape. In a January protest, O'Neil's 17 year old daughter Bernadette was among those charged with trespass for attempting to deliver "citizen indictments" of Aero executives.

I called the Governor's office today, but the press secretary refused to provide any comment or information to a free-lance writer. She required that I first have my "publisher" contact her and answer questions, then provide a written list of questions I want answered.

The NC State Bureau of Investigation needs to get to the bottom of this crime. Watch YouTube video of earlier protest at the Aero Gates, and read more about efforts to uncover the crime at TruthDig.

Photo from Mindfully.Org with NYT article.

Rat Dog, Raging Grannies & the Grateful Dead

In a week when the U.S. House voted $124 billion in more funds for war, fewer than 300 persons gathered at City County Plaza to raise a public objection to the continuation of the slaughter. Why is that?

The peace rally was organized by a half dozen or so dedicated workers in the WNC Peace Coalition who give a lot of volunteer time to the process.

The night before the rally, I was headed home after participating in a live teleconference with Noam Chomsky at UNCA, followed by a half hour with Women in Black (most of whom were sitting throughout the vigil on the orange plastic barriers that blocked access to Vance Monument.)

As I reached the the Civic Center, I came upon a crowd of young people, many in dread locks, tie die, and long hippie-style skirts and beads, in a reasonable imitation of Grateful Dead followers. They were milling around, most with one finger held high, hoping to score a ticket to the Rat Dog concert. Of course I had no idea who Rat Dog is, so I asked a young man. With some amusement, he let me know their connection to Grateful Dead.

Since they all looked so much like a 60s crowd, I thought I'd do a bit of proselytizing about how powerful it could be if all those who gathered for the concert would come to the peace rally the next day. One young woman set me straight on that notion: It doesn't do any good to stand in the park. The politicians don't listen. They're all too corrupt.

She might be right. How can any honest and self-respecting lawmaker vote over 100 billion dollars to continue a war they admit is a mistake? Why did Move On participate? With presidential signing statements and veto power, what does it matter if they set a date certain for withdrawal? The Bush/Cheney/Rove juggernaut won't be easily stopped. These Congress members' loved ones aren't in the line of fire. And where is the money coming from anyway? Rep. John Lewis, in his powerful dissenting speech said it well:

And while we are telling our veterans of this war, the elderly, the poor, and the sick that there is no room in the budget for them, the American people have spent over $400 billion on a failed policy. We cannot do more of the same. Mr. Speaker, violence begets violence. It does not lead to peace.

We crones, who have long been raising our voices against war, put on our frumpiest print dresses and aprons, donned outrageous hats, and gathered our gumption to march into town in the guise of Raging Grannies for Impeachment. We livened up the less than lusty line-up at the Asheville peace rally and had a helluva good time singing our parodies, calling on folks to rise up against the war. We might as well poke some fun in the face of this horror. Those hundreds of thousands of war causalities are not the grateful dead. And the real rat dogs are in high office.
Howard Zinn asks, "Are we politicians or citizens?"
If we are citizens, then when will we rise up to stop this war?

Photos: Dave Ireland
Mountain Green Party

Walking the Line in Fayetteville

"I do not consent to this search," I stated as an amiable looking police officer patted my bag and fingered the contents. As I stepped beyond that first gauntlet, the officer with the electronic wand approached. "I do not consent to this search," I stated again. "Then you won't come in," he countered, pushing me firmly back with a two fingered pressure to my chest.

I was in Fayetteville, NC at the March 17 Peace March and Rally. Several carloads and a van sponsored by Veterans for Peace, Chapter 99 traveled from Asheville to Fayetteville, home of Fort Bragg and Pope Air Force base. There were other Western North Carolina folks there from Brevard, Black Mountain and Celo among the 500-600 who attended. We made the ten hour round trip for the four-hour event to show our support for Military Families Speak Out, the Iraq Veterans Against the War, and for the local organizers rising against the war from within the belly of the militarized beast near the largest military installation in the world.

We marched together through mostly residential areas to a city park led by Iraq Veterans and other Veterans for Peace, including the National President, Michael T. McPhearson. It wasn't my first visit to Fayetteville, and organizers had duly posted the warning on the website that police would search bags prior to allowing entrance into the rally site.

As we approached the park, gently guided by well-meaning peace keepers, we war resisters obediently lined up to submit to a search of bags, cursory at best, and a pat-down search or electronic wanding from the mostly-male police clustered at the park entrance. Yellow tape printed with "Police Line, Do Not Cross" surrounded the park. There was a considerable presence of black-attired armed force (over 100), including three horse-mounted police patrolling the perimeter and a K-9 unit with an explosive-sniffing dog.

Two dozen or so counter-demonstrators were confined to a grassy area across the street from the park. They broadcast recorded commentary from the likes of John Wayne and George W. Bush with high-decibel assaults of the Marine Corps anthem, the Ballad of the Green Beret, the National Anthem, and other "patriotic" noise, punctuated with chicken clucks, taunting and accusations: "You're stabbing your battle buddies in the back!" and "Honor their deaths by completing the mission."

Among the pro-military group was a small contingent of black-leather jacketed motorcyclists, looking careworn and well over middle aged and hardly threatening as they stood, hand to heart, while the Pledge of Allegiance blared over their loudspeaker.

"We're doing this for your safety," the policeman at the park entrance countered when I asked about "probable cause," and other inconvenient Constitutionally-guaranteed checks on unreasonable search and seizure. "Everything has changed since 9-11," he contended.

"I do not consent to this search," I stated as an amiable looking police officer patted my bag and fingered the contents. As I stepped beyond that first gauntlet, the officer with the wand approached. "I do not consent to this search," I stated again. "Then you won't come in," he countered, pushing me firmly back with a two fingered pressure to my chest.

During my six months as an SOA political prisoner, I submitted under duress and threat of further punishment to multiple body searches. This police order to submit at the entrance to a peace rally triggered a visceral reaction. I simply could not obey. My resistance was rising: "What if I go in anyway, without submitting to your search. What will I be charged with?" I asked. But before the officer could fully respond, an earnest peace-keeper arrived.

"We've already had one arrest," she said. "We don't want another." Well, neither did I. But this violation of civil liberties in order to join my comrades at a peace rally was just too much. I backed away and stood outside the perimeter as I witnessed another person object and leave the area rather than submit. "I'm going to talk to a lawyer about this," he said.

"You have to keep moving," the officer politely advised. "You can't stand here."

So, for four hours I walked the trail of non-compliance between the cluster of loud and taunting counter-demonstrators on one side, the scores of police stationed all along the perimeter, and the peace rally in the park.

Despite their harsh words and insults, I felt a sympathy for the confounded, lied to and and used counter demonstrators, and a curiosity as I pieced together bits of every-day conversation from among the armed police who I passed with slow, deliberate steps, back and forth on the parkside path for the duration of the rally. As I walked I picked up snippets of the peace rally as Holly Near sang, families of soldiers killed in the war pleaded for an end to the madness, the North Carolina NAACP president called for repentance, retired Major Ann Wright ordered us all to DC as our duty to end the war, and Michael T. McPhearson declared: "I don't answer to the President. He and the Congress must answer to me."

I'm glad I found a middle way, a place to walk on the edges, a place to listen, a place to observe, and a few hours of walking meditation to take it all in--this rally for peace, this mass of armed force, the confounded counter-demonstrators--on a day when four more American soldiers were blown up in Iraq and countless Iraqi people perished.

I do not consent.

Rile the Eagles in the Army of Destruction

I took the Number 18 bus to AB-Tech today to speak at the Women's History Month forum, "Women in Activist Politics." I felt honored to be a speaker in the series, which included a presentation the week before from our Mayor Terry Bellamy. I spent much of last night pulling together some thoughts and historical nuggets from some of the many women who have walked the path of activist politics in the past century. It is a continuum, this work we do calling for peace and for a world free of militarism. My voice is just one more woman's voice raised in hopeful anticipation of a world without war.

Who am I to speak? My question is: Who are we, who are any of us, not to speak in these times when our fundamental democratic right, our civic duty to call our government to account, is threatened, and our peaceful dissent is criminalized. Voices of dissent are a vital element in any healthy Democracy.

In a letter to "EveryOne-ABTECH," one instructor, who chose not to attend, called my presence a "slap in the face of those who have given so much to keep us safe and free." He protested that I, "a common criminal" would be honored as someone with something important to say about women's history. Apparently he doesn't know much about women's history, and the many women who have spent time in U.S. prisons and jails for speaking out, for demanding the right to vote and the restoration of full measure of human rights and dignity to all persons.

According to an organizer of the event, my invitation to speak caused quite "a furor" on campus--at least among those who pay attention to chosen speakers. But for the dozen or so women and one man who came to listen to a lunch-time lecture, my remarks were well received, and our discussion was a good one.

The dissenter, who made his objections part of an open letter to the campus, believes there is no honor "in intentional criminal activity, regardless of one's underlying motives. " He apologized to his colleagues who serve in law enforcement, and he especially wanted those who have worked with the School of Americas to understand that he had "no part in the decision to invite Ms. Hanrahan."

My misdemeanor trespass, which resulted in a six-month imprisonment, was a consequence of peaceful protest with 10,000 others in the SOA Watch movement, calling for an investigation into the human rights abuses of the School of the Americas.

Wow! I riled that Eagle's feathers before he even heard me speak! I wish he had come to join the discussion. Women's History is rife with dissidents.

Helen Keller, the deaf, blind and enormously brave woman who spoke against war in 1916 at Carnegie Hall called upon all people to:

"Strike against war, for without you no battles can be fought. Strike against preparedness that means death and misery to millions of human beings. Be not dumb, obedient slaves in any army of destruction. Be heroes in an army of construction."

Jeannette Rankin, the first woman elected to Congress said, in 1929:
"There can be no compromise with war; it cannot be reformed or controlled; cannot be disciplined into decency or codified into common sense; for war is the slaughter of human beings, temporarily regarded as enemies, on as large a scale as possible."

I will continue to raise my voice against war. And if speaking out has made of me "a common criminal," then so be it. Better that than being "a dumb, obedient slave in an army of destruction."

Holding the Ground

The wind that tunnels up Patton Ave. toward Vance Monument is steady and strong. Women in Black, standing there every Friday in determined opposition to the violence of wars, foreign and domestic, lean into the poles that hold aloft our banner as it fills with the wind like a mainsail.

The public square is blocked off now with orange plastic barriers. The ground where we stand is uneven and rocky. The public works folk have torn up the sidewalk to reconfigure the space. Yet we continue to stand, still and silent (more often than not), in the center of town.

Sometimes as I stand I rest my gaze on the distant mountains as the sun sets. I am ever amazed at the steady stream of passing traffic, and at the massive size of some of the vehicles. These vigils help keep me mindful, when so much serves to distance us from feeling the horror of these seemingly endless wars. Holding in awareness the suffering of those caught in the web of violence, even for a mere hour a week, is an important act of solidarity.

I received a letter today from Senator Richard Burr. He says he is "grateful for the sacrifices our troops and their families make everyday to keep our country safe." He says that "even when we have successfully assisted the Iraqi government in building its democracy, it is likely we will continue to fight in a global war against terrorism." His stationery has the watermark of an eagle, wings outspread. "We are waging a war that is entirely different than any fought in our nation's history," he wants me to know.

I listened tonight to a friend who is feeling very dispirited by the talk of advancing this "global war" into Iran. We were nibbling at the food laid out for guests at a friend's art show on the University Campus. It was a pleasant evening, despite the almost daily reports of dead soldiers, of civilian massacres, and the politicians' glib predictions of troop surges and global war.

Steady and strong. That is how I see the Women in Black standing in cities and towns around the world. Holding the ground to make our dissent visible. But perhaps we are just nibbling around the edges of the table of dissent when what we need to do is turn it all upside down, sweep away the distractions that distance us from the violent truth of U.S. aggression, and push forward with all the strength and power of the mighty winds to bring that eagle to the ground and let the peace doves rise.

"Stop it Now!" Bang the pots loudly!

Molly Ivins is right. We need people in the streets, banging pots and pans and demanding, "Stop it Now."

I saw a woman in Washington banging her pot as we held the street on Independence Avenue last week. "I'm doing it for Molly," she said.

The clouds were hanging low and heavy with the damp cold of winter much of today. I didn't make it to Vance Monument to stand with the Women in Black. That strong, silent vigil helps keep me mindful of the grief wrought by these wars, these endless damn wars. Its a public prayer. A public mourning.

Lately, I feel more like banging pots and pans in the streets. Making a mighty noise. I think that's what I'll do on Tuesday. Maybe I'll feel brave enough to bang my pot all the way to the center of town, carrying a sign: "Stop it Now!" Maybe I won't be the only one doing that.