Activists to Color Democratic Convention

Source: Denver Post

June 21, 2008, 11:46PM
Activists to color Democratic convention
Many heading to Denver to demand social change and blast party leaders
By COLLEEN O'CONNOR
Denver Post

DENVER — A nude-in with bodies arranged to spell out "Peace," music with a message, civil disobedience, direct confrontation and radical cheerleading. That funky fusion of protest, performance and pompoms. The new generation of activists, and the '60s protesters who birthed them, are busy with creative ferment, organizing their public dissent for the Democratic National Convention in Denver in August. They are motivated by the desire to create social change with people power, not political power, frustrated by a mounting list of problems, from the mortgage crisis to soaring prices for gas and food.

"There will be a lot of people at this convention who are progressive, and who are angry at the Democrats," says Virginia Trabulsi, who's worked for years with the antiwar group United for Peace and Justice. "They're saying, 'Why have we not impeached Bush? Why is Homeland Security out of control?' " Tens of thousands of activists are expected, both homegrown and imported. Some plan to drive FEMA trailers up from Mississippi for a media-savvy statement about continuing Hurricane Katrina struggles. Others are coming from Seattle, like the Backbone Campaign, which will haul 70-foot-tall political puppets called The Chain Gang: prison-suited images of President Bush, Vice-President Dick Cheney and former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

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And then there are the pacificists, groups like the historic American Friends Service Committee founded by Quakers in 1917, which plans to host an exhibit called "The Costs of War," detailing how the $720 million spent each day on the war could be spent on education and housing.

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Code Pink, the national antiwar organization, plans a Restore Democracy Parade, featuring floats, political theater, musicians, stilt performers, radical cheerleaders, puppets, drummers and bands. The local spokeswoman for Code Pink is Zoe Williams, a 22-year-old platinum blonde with spiky hair and black-and-white polka-dot canvas shoes. She's part of the new face of activism, a youth-driven alliance that includes Students for Peace and Justice, Students for a Democratic Society and Tent State University. Her goal is to help restore the image of activists everywhere. "That's something our progressive movement is now seriously considering," she says. "How can we make ourselves less frightening? How can we make ourselves look open? One of the big things about the colorful, creative protests is to show that we are a very interesting, artistic, positive group of people. We aren't this scary image that protesters often get painted as

Read more: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/politics/5849241.html

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Note: This article is for a Denver newspaper. Many of these same activists, including Code Pink, will also protest the Republication National Convention in St. Paul.

Please don't lose sight of the message we carry. Tolerance peace and understanding lead to better discussion yet being ignored and mocked is business as usual. Good luck.

On the one hand it is free speech/free expression, a natural right in this country. And as for the wild display, who doesn't love a circus, a spectacle?

On the other hand, I don't feel some of these really freaky displays should represent me--or necessarily the nature of the message I resonate with (of course they don't, they represent that particular group preforming their street drama)--it just seems that all democrats or those who lean to the left get painted with the same brush to an observer.

At the convention where Hubert Humphrey went on to win the Presidency...oh, wait, he didn't win. The activists made the Democrats look like crap, and the most ridiculed politicion of the 1960's, Richard Nixon, took over the nation and continued Vietnam for four more years.

Gee, doesn't sound like those protests will be all that much fun when Obama loses to McCain, and the country goes further into the ground.

This is who'll be greeting them-
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x150259

Could be a real litmus test of the state of our country.

The link to the article is: http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_9654625.

That's me, quoted in the second paragraph. :hi: