on the road again - to be continued
i have often been asked why i drive my truck around the country w/such messages painted on the side. aren't i afraid? i better not go to certain places, i'm told. i better not go here or there, stick to the west coast, the cities, the progressive centers.
i say do we not live in a democracy? or do you know, by telling me i should be afraid, that we do not live in a democracy - only if we can pass for the majority, do we get our democratic rights. have you known all along you get democracy as long as you're the right skin color, the right class, the right religion, the right political persuasion? have you known all along our democracy is not for all of us?
i began painting my truck & driving it around the country after 9/11 and after our president told us to go shopping, he was going to war. the first thing i painted on my truck was "thou shalt not kill" and then under it i had the words "retaliation, revenge, avenge, offense, defense" in black circles with big red lines thru them. i was seeking out wimmin to talk w/them about whether they really wanted our country to go to war. the second trip i made, i replaced the circles with the words "unless to secure 60% of the world's resources for 4% of the world's people".
i have been thru the 'heart' (more like heart-less) land of this country before, many times. i have white skin, i am jewish, i am a lesbian, but often white christians in this part of the country assume when we first meet that i am with them. i am not.
i paint my truck and travel for two reasons: 1) to let these people who think they are the only voice, the majority voice, in this country - to let them know they are not. there are other voices. and 2)to touch base w/those folks who are like-minded, who do not have easy access to alternative representative news & views, who do think and feel liberal but are surrounded by aggressive non-liberals.
on one of my trips recently, i was listening to the biography of eleanor roosevelt and she said it much better than i ever have: it is as easy to spread hope as it is to spread fear. so i am going thru the country trying to spread hope.
i set out this morning with a message of shame - shame on all of us, for we have all lost big time. it is not the first time in our history that we have lost big time - in fact, our loss makes me wonder about all the other losses in our country - like from the very beginning when the original people were being murdered all over this country - were there many like-minded folks who were against this killing of innocent people in order to take over their land? did these european folks stand up against the other european folks, the rich, land-owners who were grabbing whatever they could or were they the only ones here? were there major protests about the mass killing of buffalo and the genocide of the first peoples?
more later. peace & love, sam
i say do we not live in a democracy? or do you know, by telling me i should be afraid, that we do not live in a democracy - only if we can pass for the majority, do we get our democratic rights. have you known all along you get democracy as long as you're the right skin color, the right class, the right religion, the right political persuasion? have you known all along our democracy is not for all of us?
i began painting my truck & driving it around the country after 9/11 and after our president told us to go shopping, he was going to war. the first thing i painted on my truck was "thou shalt not kill" and then under it i had the words "retaliation, revenge, avenge, offense, defense" in black circles with big red lines thru them. i was seeking out wimmin to talk w/them about whether they really wanted our country to go to war. the second trip i made, i replaced the circles with the words "unless to secure 60% of the world's resources for 4% of the world's people".
i have been thru the 'heart' (more like heart-less) land of this country before, many times. i have white skin, i am jewish, i am a lesbian, but often white christians in this part of the country assume when we first meet that i am with them. i am not.
i paint my truck and travel for two reasons: 1) to let these people who think they are the only voice, the majority voice, in this country - to let them know they are not. there are other voices. and 2)to touch base w/those folks who are like-minded, who do not have easy access to alternative representative news & views, who do think and feel liberal but are surrounded by aggressive non-liberals.
on one of my trips recently, i was listening to the biography of eleanor roosevelt and she said it much better than i ever have: it is as easy to spread hope as it is to spread fear. so i am going thru the country trying to spread hope.
i set out this morning with a message of shame - shame on all of us, for we have all lost big time. it is not the first time in our history that we have lost big time - in fact, our loss makes me wonder about all the other losses in our country - like from the very beginning when the original people were being murdered all over this country - were there many like-minded folks who were against this killing of innocent people in order to take over their land? did these european folks stand up against the other european folks, the rich, land-owners who were grabbing whatever they could or were they the only ones here? were there major protests about the mass killing of buffalo and the genocide of the first peoples?
more later. peace & love, sam
posted by Xan @ 9:19 AM
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