----- Original Message ----- From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Friday, June 30, 2000 3:17 PM Subject: [STOPNATO] Viewing Iraq from the N.Y. / MASS border STOP NATO: NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.COM ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Start Your Own FREE Email List at http://www.listbot.com/links/joinlb
I've reached the New York Massachusetts border on my bicycle tour to end the sanctions on Iraq. What follows is an account of politics on the road, jumproap snakes and post office parcels. Since June 10, I've been traveling from Cleveland Ohio to Boston Massachusetts. Apart from a spoke that broke and shot into my leg, injuries have been minimal. I can handle bars and cycle paths, but I don't deal well with cars and pyschopaths. Been run off the road only once, and otherwise make like a loaded camel in my stubborn owenership of a small but life-saving portion of shoulder-less roads. I improved upon the factsheets I was handing out about the devestating impact of economic sanction on the people of Iraq. It gives me unparralleled confidence to approach people when i have a brochure that is in my voice. I have also riden incognito and adorned with signs. Truckers always flag me down if we leapfrog, and the conversations are an expose on American patriotism and working class identity. Take Frank. Tenth grade education, proud teamster, quick to call me a communist. But we jive on the problems facing truckers, and he agrees with me that arms dealers fuel war across the globe. But "Saddam's a threat, and Iraqi's gotta learn that they're fucked as long as he's in power." In Syracuse an energetic group of students are planning for anti-sweatshop and living wage work next semester, and as I talk to them about Iraq, concerns arise about how it may be too late for the people, and that anti-American sentiment is now destined to produce many Saddams (Milosevics, Hitlers, Ortegas...). I can't imagine a people ever stumbing into democracy or overthrowing a dictator without the instruments of civil society. Sanctions don't just deny medicines and technology, but have left southern and central Iraq with but 10 nonprofit groups. Richard, manager of the "Mother Earth Cafe" in Albany remarks that I receive offerings of hospitality precisely because I don't expect it. There is naivety in my travels, to be sure, but I've learned from a kind Indian woman who loaded me with free oranges and pakoras to the Catholic Shrine that granted me solace in a thunderstorm that investing in the process of traveling rather than focus on the destination brings blessings everyday. And in this I realize is a fundamental to organizing: the means are the ends. But the fear of being public is a mountain higher that the berkshires which loom around me. Making the act of travel an act of community means unlearning silence and fear of people. I am passing out brochures by the hundreds, to kids on skateboards, quarry workers and gas station attendants. But each opportunity is a hurdle. Communicating with America is like selling lemonade on the highway. I have to go, but have a favor to ask. This week dozens of people were lobbying in DC for the "Humanitarian Exports Leading to Peace" bill, which would allow the US to export food and medicine to Iraq. Encourage Rep David Price to support it at 202 543-6176. Or try what I've done in many post offices along the way - pack a parcel with aspirin, bandaids, toys and pencils to mail to the Iraqi Red Crescent. Its illegal, and the Post Office won't let you. In Albany I was on TV for the symbolic action. Every display of solidarity with the people there is an act of rebellion. And if you are so moved, come to DC on August 5, 6 or 7 to demonstrate on the anniversary of the sanctions and the bombing of Hiroshema. Its time to raise all our voices! Peace from the Road Andrew Pearson ________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Special Offer-Earn 300 Points from MyPoints.com for trying @Backup Get automatic protection and access to your important computer files. Install today: http://click.egroups.com/1/5667/6/_/790251/_/962374299/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------- *** Iraq Action Coalition Discussion Forum *** http://iraqaction.org/discussion.html ------------------------------------ *To Post a message, send it to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *To Subscribe, send a blank message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *To Unsubscribe, send a blank message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * To see the List Guidelines, go to: http://iraqaction.org/discussion.html *Any questions, contact the List Moderator at [EMAIL PROTECTED] -----------------------------------------------
