4th July: Greensboro

joanna bujes joanna.bujes at ebay.sun.com
Fri Jul 12 15:45:10 PDT 2002


Sent by a friend. Sorry, no URL.

Joanna ____________________________

Lessons from The Fourth of July in Greensboro

by Ed Whitfield

Greensboro, NC

July 5, 2002

Folks who believe the official line that the support

for the current US policies in the war on terrorism

and the new domestic measures at home is nearly

unanimous need to know what happened in Greensboro,

North Carolina on the 4th of July.

The Greensboro Peace Coalition heeded a firm

suggestion by one of its leading younger members that

it should have an entry in the city's

annual 4th of July Parade. After some hesitation, we

decided to register an entry and spread the word

widely among our contacts that we were going to claim

our piece of the public space and utilize that day of

patriotism to spread our message of opposition to

Bush's "war on terrorism".

To coincide with our entry into the parade, we bought

a half page ad in the local daily paper, the

Greensboro News and Record and had them

print the "Not In Our Name -- Statement of

Consciousness" along with names of over 100 prominent

national signers.

We were never sure how many people would show up. Some

of our members and supporters were afraid that the

parade entry would be too agressive a tactic. They

feared that in the light of the patriotic outburst

since 911 an entry in the city's parade would be too

much in the face of those who would be waving the flag

that day. Some of the same folks who have stood weekly

on a busy street corner in a vigil for peace every

since October when the US started bombing Afghanistan,

felt that the parade entry would be a bit too much.

Some of them changed their minds and came to the

parade anyway. The were all glad that they did because

those negative fears turned out

on this 4th of July in Greensboro North Carolina to be

wrong.

We had over 50 people -- black and white, young and

old, professional and laboring and unemployed -- come

to march with us behind a large banner that said

"Greensboro Peace Coalition -- Not In

Our Name".

Along the route we passed out small flyers with the

"Not In Our Name" pledge of resistance on one side and

a statement from the Greensboro

Peace Coalition on the other. The theme of the Parade

was "American Heroes". Our delegation marched with

posters of Mark Twain, Albert Einstein, Fredrick

Douglas, Martin Luther King, and other great Americans

who have stood for peace and against militarism and

agression.

As we walked the mile and a half parade route, many of

the people along the street began to applaud. There

were a few hecklers, but only a few. There were far

more smiles, peace signs and applause. Two

city police on bicycles pulled into the parade to

follow our group.

We passed the reviewing stand where there was a live

broadcast on the local radio. The announcer seemed a

bit surprised as he announced "And here is ... the

Greensboro Peace Coalition." We let out a cheer

for ourselves that could be heard on the radio.

After the parade, we set up a table among the groups

who participated in the day long "Fun Fourth"

activities. We were in between the table

of a businessman running for US Senate, and a young

man selling digital phone service for AT&T. Many

people came by our table to pick

up more literature and to talk. So many times that day

we heard how glad people were to see someone with the

courage to express concerns about the nation's

direction.

A real surprise came when officials from the event's

organizing committee came to our table to give us the

award for "Best Interpretation of Theme" in the

Parade.

After the day was over, I looked at the emails coming

to the Greensboro Peace Coalition. Some of them were

caustic and critical of us for having the nerve of

going against "mainstream America". One

said that what we were doing and saying was not "in

vogue" and that this wasn't the 60's. Many others

however expressed real joy that someone was standing

up for what was right and asking how to get more

involved.

We are following up by getting people involved in our

regular meeting and inviting them to other special

events like the speaker from Colombia who will talk

about the US military involvememt there at a

covered dish dinner here in just over a week.

There is a real lesson in this. If you scratch the

surface of the poll numbers about Bush's and

Ashcroft's overwhelming support, you

get down to a lot of people with a lot of questions, a

lot of concerns and a lot of fears. Some of them are

afraid that they are alone in what they are thinking.

What it takes to get them excited and to get them

involved is for them to see someone standing up so

that they will know that they are not alone. We should

have been doing this in every city across the country

that had a 4th of July parade. If we had the forsight

and the courage, we could have turned this day of flag

waving into a day of introspection and dialogue and

building this important movement against repression

here at home and agression abroad.



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