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Day #1 & 2
Thursday, July 6
Today was our first day fasting outside our senator, Dianne Feinstein’s
office in downtown San Francisco. We had about 10-20 fasters throughout
the day, and we lined the gate behind our vigil with pink banners
and peace ribbons. We put out a big pink satin fabric and invited
people to sign it with messages of peace that we can deliver to
Feinstein. We put out a table with buttons and clipboards with the
Voters for Peace pledge. Jes set up the Gandhi puppet prominently
on the corner. Sureya and her 16 year old son, Jheeran, joined us.
In the morning we had several TV stations visit our vigil, and one
station, Channel 4, stayed for an hour, following me around throughout
my interactions with passersby, and filming the interaction between
Iraq war vet and peace activist Eli Painted Crow, and a bike messenger
guy, who was also a military vet and initially was very opposed
to our presence, and then had a really long discussion with us about
how angry he is about the war. In the afternoon, Eli got on the
microphone and started speaking to San Franciscans about her experiences
in war, her life teachings, and why it is important to stand up
for peace. When Eli speaks, people listen. In the late afternoon,
Univision, the Spanish speaking news station, came out and interviewed
us again. I got some food poisoning, I believe from a spoiled juice,
as I was fasting, and I was throwing up between interviews and finally
went home. I guess that was a cleansing way to begin my fast—getting
it all out of my system! I slept very well that night, and dreamed
that Gandhi was alive and walking through the streets of SF with
us.
Day #2
Friday, July 7
Today we were outside Senator Feinstein’s office for our second
day of the vigil. We met many interesting people who work in the
area or are tourists from faraway places. We collected hundreds
of signatures on the Voters for Peace pledge.
We have realized two things about our fast after our first two
days: we were so surprised by how many people were eager to sign
onto our Voters for Peace pledge; and we had transformative conversations
with people from all walks of life, including our new friend Sam
who sells the Street Sheet and wore a pink shirt to our vigil on
the second day, a tall man in a suit who saw the vigil and then
rushed away and returned an hour later with photocopied pages from
a book with essays on Gandhi by Tolstoy, a group of young people
from the Ukraine who are working in SF for the summer and shared
their experiences of anti-war rallies in their country with us,
and a man who took out his cell phone and called Feinstein’s
office to tell her to stop supporting the war right there on the
spot. We’ve also discovered a lot of apathy in our fellow San
Franciscans, and frankly, some folks have no hope in Feinstein,
saying that she’s married to a war profiteer and she could
care less about her constituents. Others are less informed on Feinstein’s
record, and more inclined to tell us that individually we don’t
have the power to change anything. One woman said that what Cindy
did at Crawford last summer was really something, but now with the
Bush admin. and the corporate media, nothing’s going to change.
These kinds of interactions really enforce my own beliefs about
how important it is to not give into the fear-mongering this administration
has become so good at. That’s my favorite thing about CODEPINK—brave
women (and allies) around the country standing up to the fear-based
color-coded alerts and reclaiming the vibrant power of pink protest.
Midday we were joined by Marie, the CODEPINK
Lake Tahoe coordinator, who took the train all the way down to spend
time with us. Marie brought banners and a tea pot with green tea
that she made with the heat of the sun. Marie always brings creativity
and high energy to any action and we were very lucky to have her
with us. Irene brought fresh lemons from her tree for everyone to
put in their water. This is how our vigil has been—people spontaneously
bring exactly what we need. I put out an email urgently asking people
to help with the last minute details for our kick off action on
Wednesday, and it all came together: Janet got the food, Vicki coordinated
the speakers, Sam and Erin made press calls, Eli wrote a press release
and picked up supplies, In the evening Sureya and I were interviewed
by IndyBay for an hour. You
can hear us on air by clicking here.
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