MAY DAY! MAY DAY! MAY DAY!

[bloom]

Doesn't May 1st seem like a good day for activism?

It's a distress signal. We are in distress about Iraq, etc.

Europe has had a history of protests on May Day.

What do you think? Is anything going on?

(I had thought it would be a good day for a general stike, but being that it's a Saturday...)

[mike_c]

1. it's my b-day...

...and I will definitely be on strike!

[pop goes the weasel]

2. originally an American day of protest

May Day — The real Labor Day

I'd love to see people make it ours again. Maybe we could have a national Violate Taft-Hartley Event. Low level retail and service "managers" could join a service workers union, sympathy strikes could be held for whoever happens to be striking at the time, etc. Oh, that would be something to see!

[bigbillhaywood]

10. That would be cool, but you might as well go for a general strike

[lapauvre]

3. Mike.

It is my daughter's birthday, 1963, and my best friends birthday, 1935. I don't understand either one of them, but I love them.

It is, unfortunately a day of signifance, to the communist party. Or to workers, which the communist party thought it was going to represent.

It is also a day, according to certain pagans I happen to know, an important day to them.

So happy birthday to MIke, my daughter and my best friend.

You really have a burden to bear with the other importances.

However, from my daughter, from my best friend, from communism, from the pagans, and from all of those who are going down, the distress call of May Day remains the most prominent of its uses.

[bloom]

4. Yea - there are protests brewing - see:

http://www.internationalanswer.org/

[lapauvre]

5. Anti-war protests?

Anti-war protests are what didn't pay off, even though world wide, before the war. They can't pay off now.

This regime just doesn't get it. Maybe the anti-war group doesn't get it either.

We are in it now and we have managed to so disrupt, damage, destroy, demoralize, fragment a country that we NOW have a responsibility, dammit, to see it through to the end. And it may be OUR end. AGAIN!

I will vote Democrat, for Kerry, this November, but I really hate to.

I would much rather see the Republicans with this weighty albatross hung around their necks, which are located only slightly below their crotch grabbing, propaganda spouting, whirling dervish spinning, fast talking, crock of utter crap brains.

I would not waste my time on an anti-war protest. I would spend my time on demanding, and demonstrating for, the dropping of that giant American flag fluttering behind that giant Christian Coalition Cross, and demanding accountability and honesty from these monsters.

Unfortunately, Bloom, as Americans, we did not vote properly in the past and we voted for what we have. While we were looking in our pockets (if poor) for another twenty cents, or (if rich) an extra twenty billion, something has happened to us. As a people, we have permitted this to happen.

WE, the people. WE, the people who did not get out there and vote. WE, the people who just love a good brawl and weapons and killing technology, not to mention money. WE (s)elected this! WE now have a responsibility.

WE NOW have THIS responsibility because we did NOT take the responsibility of voting.

WE cannot leave those people in this hell we have created and continue to create for them. But WE voted on the person, or permitted as "silent lambs" the tyrannical decisions made in the elections of 2000 and 2002.

I am sorry for us all, Bloom. WE are between a rock and a hard place, and even worse, we have put the entire world in the same position.

I personally do not think this country can stand another four years of this regime, but I do hate having a democrat be elected to have to clean up this septic tank, stinking to high heaven, that the Republicans have dumped upon the world. So, as I said, I will vote for Kerry, reluctantly. I don't think America, itself, can stand four more years of this.

I would prefer, if there were some way to save America and keep HIM, have GWB be the old man sitting on the bench with the albatross around his neck, next to his father with his not quite so large albatross hanging around his neck.

Could you think in terms, perhaps, not of anti-war, which is kind of too late, and perhaps go to pro-peace. Could you consider, perhaps, that 9/11 would probably have never happened without decades of ignoring the human rights of the Palestinians? And when was the last time, if ever, WE Americans visited our proclaimed responsibilities as the paragons of human rights? Big picture, Bloom.

Very big picture. Much bigger than the ego of American "John Wayne wannabees."

If we can manage to get out enough voters to defeat this insanity, please get your end war and end racism into the fray of defending a lone Democrat who is going to have to jump into that septic tank at the behest of us all. Please be responsible, and advocate responsibility for ALL Americans to PAY ATTENTION, and VOTE.

Geez. I could just keep going, Bloom. I am old, Bloom, and I remember much, just in my lifetime. And I have read much history, before the revisionists have gotten to it, and much after the revisionists who exposed the feet of clay of those significant American icons. Things move more rapidly these days.

Anti-war is, at this point, about as useful as being anti-Conquistadors. The die is cast. WE, as a nation must be responsible for what we have done and not done. WE, as a nation must be responsible for producing healing and peace. It IS our responsibility.

Since this guy (this administration) obviously doesn't have a clue, I guess it will fall upon the shoulders (if the elections manage to be legally held) of that one lonely democrat. Please, support American responsibility and peace and justice. If, and it is a remote IF, Kerry is elected, please, please recognize that we need to try to find a way to exit from this fire ant's nest we've stomped on, and get our people home with as much dignity as possible.

Remember the Conquistadors who did not understand the uncivilized civilization they destroyed in the name of God and His Majesty.

Sorry to be so long winded.

[bloom]

6. You are welcome to think of it as a peace-promoting activity

Or an anti-Bush hypocrisy activity, etc.

I agree that the war has become an intolerable mess. This certainly is not about ending the beginning of the mess - but the continuation thereof.

I don't think that the "dignity" of the US is the issue.


I think it's about doing what is right. And what I think is right is for us to start the peace and leave the Iraqis to their own country.

[bigbillhaywood]

11. A strong argument can be made that voting is even more ineffective

than protests. You want to see some change, aluch some nationwide strikes, cripple the industries and watch the powerbrokers really sweat.

[bloom]

12. THere is the counter-argument that Bush* was NOT voted in

and he's there ANYWAY and it could happen again.


SO it seems protests are appropriate.

[hippywife]

14. It always helps!!

You may not see immediate results except the therapuetic one you feel for being out there letting your voice be heard.

We have to keep the pressure on whether we think they get it or not.

If you don't voice your opinions, no one thinks you care or that anyone else does for that matter.

We have to keep reminding people as they go through their daily lives with its daily aggravations, that people are dying and being maimed for these lies.

If we lay down our signs, they will NEVER lay down their weapons.

[meow mix]

7. falls on a saturday

and so-cal doggies prefer to have thier haircuts on saturday.
must work! =)

[DoverFrank]

8. I would protest this war any day.

I am so tired of it and it wont be over very soon. I cant beleive that so many people dont know what is going on. I bet they dont have family over there so they dont care.

[bloom]

9. I have protested many times, but

it does make a difference when you have a relative there.

My nephew was in Fallujah, but it didn't last very long because he was sent home injured. He is fine with it, I guess, and wants to go back. :crazy:

I was watching the

http://lunaville.org/warcasualties/Summary.aspx

at least daily. And another site where there was an embedded journalist with his group.

But anyway - with all the Fallujah stuff going on, plus everything else, it seems like time for a protest.

[hippywife]

13. Tulsa is protesting!!

MAY 1ST NATIONAL DAY OF PROTEST AGAINST THE U.S. OCCUPATION OF IRAQ

Sponsored by United for Peace and Justice

JOIN TULSA PEACE FELLOWSHIP FOR LOCAL PROTEST

Noon til 2 pm on Saturday, May 1st 41st and S. Yale (Free Speech Corner) - Southroads and Promenade Malls corners

On May 1, 2003, George W. Bush, prematurely and with all the machismo he could muster, announced "mission accomplished" in Iraq. One year later, there's a Bush doll dressed in a flight suit being sold in stores to inspire future cannon fodder.

But the mission is far from accomplished.

*As of April 21, 707 American soldiers and over 10,000 Iraqi civilians have been killed.

*The occupation is costing 4.7 billion a month--that's over $15,000 a second.

And because our troops are spread so thinned, there's talk of reviving the draft so that more Americans can "bear some responsibility"..."pay some price" in defending the "nation's interest."

Please join the Tulsa Peace Fellowship in "defending our nation's interest." Tell passersby that

* Too many have died already

* It's time to cede control to U.N. lead forces.

* The occupation of Iraq takes precious dollars from health, education and human services etc.

* A draft will only make it easier for the US to fight more wars.

"Pay the price"with your time! Tell your friends and families!

Bring your kids! IF THERE EVER IS A DRAFT, YOU'LL WANT THEM LIKE MY BOYS TO BE ABLE TO SHOW THAT THEY GREW UP IN A FAMILY THAT IS MORALLY OPPOSED TO WAR!

GET YOUR PEACE ENDORPHINS FLOWING! EXPRESS YOURSELF!

*WRITE LETTERS TO THE EDITOR at [e-mail]

*CIRCULATE UFPJ'S PETITION AND FACT SHEETS ON IRAQ.

UFPJ's new petition on the occupation is available on our web site at http://unitedforpeace.org/downloads/emergencypetition.pdf, and educational materials are available to download from http://www.unitedforpeace.org/article.php?id=2060.

Start collecting signatures immediately, for delivery to your Senators and Representatives on May 1, or begin circulating the petition on May 1 for delivery on Memorial Day weekend. The petition campaign will continue in the coming weeks, but we hope to gather tens of thousands of signatures by May 1st.

Please make copies of the completed petitions before you mail them in: you will want to keep one copy for your group and we would love to get copies here at the UFPJ office. That will help us keep track of how the petition campaign is going all around the nation.

*GET THE MEDIA'S ATTENTION ON APRIL 29: LETTERS TO THE EDITOR AND CALLS TO RADIO TALK SHOWS.

We must get out the message that sending in more troops is NOT the answer to Iraq's problems. Use the anniversary of Bush's "mission accomplished" speech as an opportunity to write a letter to the editor explaining that the occupation is part of the problem, NOT the solution. Then take this message to the airwaves: every city and town has dozens of radio talk shows that allow call-ins. Make a call on April 29 and explain why the occupation is actually increasing the level of chaos and violence in Iraq and needs to end. Use the calls to help promote the vigil or other activity you're organizing for April 30 or May 1.

Information on how to do participate in this media campaign will be on our websitehttp://www.unitedforpeace.org *

MAKE A DONATION TO UNITED FOR PEACE AND JUSTICE: It is the donations from people like you that make it possible for UFPJ to do this important work. Please take a moment right now to make an online donation, just click on to: http://www.unitedforpeace.org/donate Thank you