am i afraid
i'm leaving my daughter's house - it is so pleasant here. she's restored an old 1906 home and has furnished it with wonderful old pieces of furniture & art and colors that are so pleasing & calming.
am i afraid to get on the road. hell no, i'm petrified. i do not know what is going to happen as i cross thru the heart=less land, over the mountains and into california. i do know that for the past 3 years, since 9/11, when i've travelled, yes, i've been scared but i knew that the majority of u.s. americans voted for gore. this i knew w/great confidence. i also knew that bush supporters are violent and aggressive - they belong to the mentality that it is okay to destroy other people and other nations to get what they want. how often have i heard white males say they wished we'd just make iraq into a parking lot - level it all, destroy everything there. i ask them since when have the iraqi people become your enemy?
how the hell did that happen? even if there were iraqi's on those planes 9/11, which there were not, but even if there were, does that make iraqi wimmin, children, and even men our enemies? because our government has attacked iraq, dropped bombs, killed 100's of thousands of iraqis, does that mean to a 54 year old iraqi womon with one grown child, kinda like me, am i her enemy?
but i digress - i want to talk about my fears here. the prez & the republicans have already said they are taking this election win as a mandate to continue their agenda: i.e. bomb the hell outta iraq. not 4 days after the election, and a huge offensive has been mounted. when we were in florida, we heard from a womon who had a friend in the reserves - they were put on notice the beginning of october and 2 days before the election, they were called up for duty. he said there were 600,000 reservists called up in florida and georgia. that's a lot of soldiers & we haven't been able to verify this, but lots were called up. he said there were not given absentee or provisional ballots, they were not allowed to vote.
i digress again. this mandate the prez thinks he has, translate that to the common redneck, the the average white testosterone driven cowboy who put bush in office along with the average rich white male - they have a mandate as well, to squelch dissent. am i scared? yes i am. but i am going anyway. because they have not really won - they win if i allow my fears to stop me. i am going with my truck painted shame, for we need to be ashamed.
driving on the freeway today, a couple of white males almost broke their neck trying to give me the finger and contort their faces into the best ugliness - who'd think they'd be estatic. they've won, supposedly. then there were all the other drivers who were soooooo happy to see me, who clapped and shouted and threw their fists in the air in triumph and solidarity.
this is the driving reason i'm going on the road w/this message & in this truck. we so desperately need hope, all of us. i need to connect w/us all over the country; and i need for folks to see me & to take hope. we will prevail.
i have faith that i will make it back to california in one piece and i will have joyous experiences along the way. i will try to keep up the journal, if i can. it is very late now & i still haven't left atlanta. AND i really want to be back for the wednesday codepink meeting.....we'll see.
peace & love, suzanne
am i afraid to get on the road. hell no, i'm petrified. i do not know what is going to happen as i cross thru the heart=less land, over the mountains and into california. i do know that for the past 3 years, since 9/11, when i've travelled, yes, i've been scared but i knew that the majority of u.s. americans voted for gore. this i knew w/great confidence. i also knew that bush supporters are violent and aggressive - they belong to the mentality that it is okay to destroy other people and other nations to get what they want. how often have i heard white males say they wished we'd just make iraq into a parking lot - level it all, destroy everything there. i ask them since when have the iraqi people become your enemy?
how the hell did that happen? even if there were iraqi's on those planes 9/11, which there were not, but even if there were, does that make iraqi wimmin, children, and even men our enemies? because our government has attacked iraq, dropped bombs, killed 100's of thousands of iraqis, does that mean to a 54 year old iraqi womon with one grown child, kinda like me, am i her enemy?
but i digress - i want to talk about my fears here. the prez & the republicans have already said they are taking this election win as a mandate to continue their agenda: i.e. bomb the hell outta iraq. not 4 days after the election, and a huge offensive has been mounted. when we were in florida, we heard from a womon who had a friend in the reserves - they were put on notice the beginning of october and 2 days before the election, they were called up for duty. he said there were 600,000 reservists called up in florida and georgia. that's a lot of soldiers & we haven't been able to verify this, but lots were called up. he said there were not given absentee or provisional ballots, they were not allowed to vote.
i digress again. this mandate the prez thinks he has, translate that to the common redneck, the the average white testosterone driven cowboy who put bush in office along with the average rich white male - they have a mandate as well, to squelch dissent. am i scared? yes i am. but i am going anyway. because they have not really won - they win if i allow my fears to stop me. i am going with my truck painted shame, for we need to be ashamed.
driving on the freeway today, a couple of white males almost broke their neck trying to give me the finger and contort their faces into the best ugliness - who'd think they'd be estatic. they've won, supposedly. then there were all the other drivers who were soooooo happy to see me, who clapped and shouted and threw their fists in the air in triumph and solidarity.
this is the driving reason i'm going on the road w/this message & in this truck. we so desperately need hope, all of us. i need to connect w/us all over the country; and i need for folks to see me & to take hope. we will prevail.
i have faith that i will make it back to california in one piece and i will have joyous experiences along the way. i will try to keep up the journal, if i can. it is very late now & i still haven't left atlanta. AND i really want to be back for the wednesday codepink meeting.....we'll see.
peace & love, suzanne
posted by Xan @ 8:45 PM
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