Code Pink Journals CodePINK Journals

Work 4 Peace,Hold All Life Sacred,Eliminate Violence! I am on my mobile version of the door-to-door, going town-to-town holding readings/gatherings/discussions of my book "But What Can I Do?" This is my often neglected blog mostly about my travels since 9/11 as I engage in dialogue and actions. It is steaming with my opinions, insights, analyses toward that end of holding all life sacred, dismantling the empire and eliminating violence while creating the society we want ALL to thrive in

Monday, October 18, 2004

early voting begins w/a banner hang!

by 2:30 last 'nite', we all fell out, exhausted but excited - we finished figuring out the logistics of our early morning banner hang to mark the beginning of early voting in jacksonville florida. 5:30 we were up again, gathering the huge banner, half of us heading to home depot for necessary supplies, the other half heading to downtown jax or j'ville (we still don't know the proper localeeze, which is important when passing as locals for the media!). ariel has found a 10th story resident in one of the tallest old apartment buildings in downtown who is going to allow us to hang the banner from his window! awesome to both ariel and josh!
we've stayed up half the nite because we have to hang a 40 foot long banner that is 20 feet wide thru a 40" window - only one window opens up in josh's apartment. we're nervous about being able to get it out and control it. we've had to gerry-rig the tent poles, duck tape rope & poles and edges to make sure it works, and we've filled sandbags to weight it without endangering the windows of the tenants below!
we've planned the drop for 8:30 or 9:00, which we are able to do - yeah!!!! the banner sways in front of the building facing the main street bridge and major downtown traffic, not to mention the news media that has shown up and the pedistrian traffic as well! jacksonville folks begin their
workday with the huge message: "bush lies, fire him" blazing in front of them!
and we're jazzed - especially after the reception at the jaguars game yesterday!
at noon, ariel and i are at the jacksonville landing - jessie jackson & the democrats are having a get out the vote rally & we've hung another banner on the balcony. we're also handing out fliers about medea coming to speak on wednesday p.m. and the pink dollars we've made about raising the minimum wage $1.00 to $6.15 in the state of florida - something bush has opposed. go figure.
several speakers talk about glenda hood - she's the k.harris appointed replacement and whose footsteps she attempted to follow in! but what a victory for the folks of florida - she presented over 30,000 voters names to be purged once again from the florida register; again over half were african american. but she was defeated - thru the hard work of concerned citizens and officials. codepink is pinkslipping glenda tomorrow in tallahassee - so ariel & i are off to that fair city in the a.m. - we'll keep you posted. peace, sam