from tucumcari to snowflake!

this morning, the desk clerk, mary, at our hotel approached me shyly, motioned to my codepink button as she read 'codepink women for peace' with a question in her voice. i told mary about codepink & she told me about her son who had spent 6 months in iraq. she was probably around my age, shorter than me, and had her long brown & grey hair pulled back into a pony tail with bangs curled smartly around her face. her voice quavered as she spoke vehemently about bush & his tactics, wishing he would go to iraq himself & fight. her anger resonated thru out the empty lobby mixing with the fierce pride she expressed - her son is now in japan trying to help soldiers deal with the horrors of war they just faced, a war they should never have had to experience. i want to send her to washington, to the white house, to the press - and i want to be right behind!
then there was the clerk at the gas station - another indiginous & indignant middle-aged womon who came out of her warm kiosk and into the cold to stand by my 'imprison bush' side of the truck & proclaim she voted for kerry. fire spit from her eyes as well as she spoke of his stealing the election. she and many folks there in this struggling new mexico town KNOW he stole the election - AGAIN. her voice raises as she expresses her rage against the injustices this man has perpetrated on us.
i'm so inspired and renewed, finding these two wimmin in the middle of this vast land. my last comment to both of them was we were going to win, it was just going to take time. they each had looked at me & said, of course we will, honey, as if they were reassuring me as well.
i stopped at a rest stop to repaint the number of soldiers dead. two wimmin from minnesota pulled up next to the truck to talk. they were on their way to arizona & wanted to thank me for doing this work. they too were shocked bush 'won' again & felt more folks were discouraged this time. we talked about turning discouragement into outrage & action.
all thru new mexico into arizona folks responded positively until we turned off i40 and proceeded south on 77 - my most favorite route thru arizona (altho 'progress' is rapidly destroying even this land as well). a beat-up pick-up truck w/2 young white males, shaved heads, raced by shouting obscenities & doing the f.u. they were stopped by a red light, so i got to hold up my 'another rich white male wannabe' sign for them and the 'why aren't you in iraq' sign. they didn't know what to say - the driver peeled off thru the light, making a left turn & disappearing in a cloud of high-desert dust. okay. peace, sam