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.