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Saturday, July 8
Saturday at our SF fasting vigil the fasters held an open mike
for people to speak out about their feelings on the Iraq war. Sureya
was speaking when a mother and her two daughters were walking by
and she noticed that one daughter looked very sad so she invited
her to come and sign the banner for Feinstein, and they did. The
little girl kept looking at Sureya as she was talking about people
being injured or killed in the war, so she invited the little girl
to speak. When the girl took the mike, she started crying, and the
mike was so loud that her tears reached everyone crossing the streets.
The girl said that the war is wrong, that children are dying, and
that she didn’t want war, that every child has a right to live
in peace. Then she hugged Sureya, who also had tears in her eyes.
A homeless man commented on the beauty of the writing of this family
on the banner, and then he took the mike and spoke out about bringing
the troops home from all foreign occupations. Sureya also told me
that she met many homeless vets while vigiling on the streets. Our
local vigil also aims to connect the local cost of war to our city’s
inhabitants—looking at our inability to provide adequate healthcare
and housing for all because of our enormous expenses on the war.
A group of Bay Area CODEPINKers—Janet,
Christina, my mom Karen, and I—drove up to Davis to ignite
the spark of the fast there. We set up a booth at the local Farmer’s
Market with CODEPINK Davis and collected
signatures on the Voters for Peace Pledge. We had our photos taken
with self-made signs about why we were against the war for a website
that documents images of Americans for peace. We talked with many
of the produce vendors, including grandma Pilar of “Pilar’s
Famous Tamales” who told us about how she prayed the rosary
until her son came back from his 4th tour of Iraq, and then prayed
intensely that he would not have to return for another tour of duty.
She affirmed the power of peace and prayer. Many people were receptive
to the message, and some people even supported the cause by donating
juice! One man, Saleem, who works for East and West Gourmet Afghan
Food, was wearing a pink shirt so I
asked him if he would take the pledge. He was really supportive
of CODEPINK, and gave me a flat bread
to eat when breaking my fast. (See photo of Rae and Saleem in this
blog)
Well, I must admit that it is one thing to be fasting in downtown
SF amidst all the car exhaust, the fast food chains, and the skyscrapers...
But it is a whole other thing to fast at an organic farmer’s
market!! Everything smelled and looked delicious, and the whole
time I was walking around with my satin “fasting for peace”
sign across my belly, so no food for me! It was tempting, but I
actually discovered that there are more ways to experience so much
succulent food than just wanting to purchase and eat it. Just knowing
it is there, and wanting it to be available for everyone, was a
fulfilling meditation.
As the farmer’s market began to close, CODEPINK
gathered in a circle on the deck overlooking the market and we went
around in a circle and shared our reasons for fasting. Then CODEPINK
Davis coordinator Natalie passed a loaf of challah bread to my mom,
Karen, to symbolically break our fast and start theirs. Natalie
and her husband Ben gave us an “Impeach 4 Peace” pink
shirt to take back to SF. Then we parted with Marie, who went up
to Sacramento to help organize the fast that will start Monday there,
and made our way back to SF. Along the way I dropped off our signed
Voters for Peace petitions at Elisa’s house—Elisa is a
mother with two little kids and she’s been fasting for several
days. Because of work and parenting commitments, she can’t
attend our vigil, so she offered to help with data entry and typed
in all the signatures. This is the ripple effect of this vigil—we
are all chipping in in whatever way we can to make this a meaningful
and successful action—I have never felt as strong a network
of women working for peace in the Bay Area as I do now.
Women in Pink UNITE!
Sunday, July 9
Today, Renay started out the vigil bravely solo. I joined her around
9:30 am just in time to see the streets flooded with women in pink!
No, it was not a spontaneous CODEPINK
convergence outside Feinstein’s... It was the Avon Breast Cancer
walk. They were walking right by our vigil, so I put on the Feinstein
outfit, and Renay grabbed a stack of flyers and started shouting,
“Boobs not Bombs!” at all the passersby. I was quite popular
with the marchers, garnering snickers and even getting to take a
few photos with the women. They took many of our flyers. When I
was getting ready to leave the vigil, Krissy Kiefer joined it. The
fast group grew as the day progressed. I went to a doula class that
I am taking, to become an assistant to women giving birth, and at
our class, which lasted all afternoon, we had a potluck. I decided
to break my fast with the women in my class, symbolically nourishing
my body as I nourish my vision of supporting women not only politically,
but interpersonally as well, and the idea of peace beginning at
birth. I have learned through the course of my heart—from relationships
to the heartbreak of realizing that the president made no effort
at all to collect, or even acknowledge, our Women Say No to War
petitions last March—that what is broken creates new openings
for greater love and dedication, and I plan to resume my fast in
the coming days. After class, I returned to our pink hq here in
SF, where I spent the night talking with Sureya about the coming
week of our vigil, and outreaching to people around the country
about our Troops Home Fast.
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