Ariel's Codepink Journal Part I
24 days till the election and I (Ariel Vegosen) am on the road with Sam Joi in a fabulous 20 foot truck to get the word out that Bush has to go. Currently we are in North Carolina in route to Florida. My journey with Code Pink has been absolutely amazing so far. I joined Sam and Rae Abileah in Cleveland Ohio, the two of them as you readers know have been on the road for quite sometime. I am so excited to say that I am now part of the Code Pink road team to get Bush out of office. This is my first journal entry on-line, so I am on incredible back up for describing how much this trip means to me and how much we are accomplishing. So I think I will do the hightlights of my time in Ohio for you:
Sam and Rae came into Cleveland Ohio at night, I was already at my friend Ann's house and overwhelmingly excited!!! There was Rae, my soul sister and Sam someone I knew I'd become great friends with and the best part was the truck! An awesome painted vehicle talking about women and peace and why Bush needs to go. I knew I had to jump on.
And jump on I did, the very next morning as we set up registering voters down on Coventry street. It was the best feeling ever, talking to people and telling them how important it is to vote. I started learning all kinds of statistics, some that horrified me, like the fact that in the 2000 election 55 million women didnt vote. I couldnt believe it! but its true and that fact alone makes me that much more deteremined to talk to women and have our voices heard. we are 51 percent of the popullation, I am sick of not being heard or taken seriously, now is our time to be listened to. After getting people registered and talking about health care, education, and the war we headed to a school event. It was great to interact with teenagers. Even though most of them are too young to vote I think it is so important to start early in telling kids how our government works. I really believe in getting teenagers aware because they have powerful voice that should be heard as well. After the event in which i learned that Cleveland public schools are losing funding we all headed back to Ann's house to celebrate the Jewish holiday Sukkot. It was so amazing to be welcomed in by the Cleveland community, to have a house to stay at, good food to eat, and to participate in the holiday. Also it was tremendous to have everyone listen to us about how much we can make a difference this election. After day one, I knew I was hooked and I couldnt wait to get out there and do more Code Pink work. And work we did do...
The next day we rocked the down town scene! There we were at Tower Center registering voters. Of course some cops gave us hassle about our truck, but we talked to them peacefully and it turns out one of them was all for our message. And Rae got to give out another peaceful police button. Being downtown was very different from Coventry street, more people, more attitudes, more ideas flowing, more people to register. Also there were other folks down there from acorn and ACT working to register people. It made me happy to see all of us organized and out on the streets. We had a kick ass pink table with a huge pink ballon saying no to bush! and it was wonderful to see that we are not alone. that there are tons of cleveland folks getting the word out. that is the one amazing and good thing about having such an awful president, it has really forced all of us to get out and do something. it is so powerful to see so many people working for positive social change. i felt really powerful. in fact i know we are doing something huge. of course not all of cleveland is down for Kerry or for getting Bush out of office. I did meet some Bush supporters, which is always interesting, cause most of the time they can't really explain why they want to vote for Bush. They say things like he is a Christian, he has good values, and they like him. When I push them on what being Christian means they usually get uncomfortable. Anyway I thought our country was founded on the idea of seperation between Church and State, so why do so many people want a Christian president. I want religious freedom, I want the right to choose what happens to my body, I want the soliders in Iraq to come home safely, I want the Iraqi people to have electricity, healthy water, better hospitals, and schools and the power to make their own decisions without my country stepping on them, i want education in my country to improve, i want better textbooks ones that actually talk about what happened to the Natives of this land and what really went on during the horrible years of slavery, I want health care, i really want health care, not just for myself but for everyone, i want the whole country to be able to afford and have health care, I want the unemployement rate to decrease, i want the rate of people not having houses or enough food to eat to decrease, i want to feel safe walking alone on the streets, i want a healthy environment, less SUVs and more clean air, all these things that I want are things that Bush's "good values" will not get me or my country. He is not helping our education system, redusing pollution (in fact he doesnt even believe in global warming), he is not any closer to bringing our troops home from a war we never should have started, he has no intention of creating a universal health care program, and he has no intention of actually helping the Iraqi people rebuild their torn up bombed up nation. Furthermore he is not pro-choice and is not for my rights as a woman at all and to add to that he doesnt want to give people the right to marry who they want. this is not the man i want as my president. his values do not look good to me. So i am out in downtown to get my message out that our country needs a change. And there i am amongst all these people and this young man around my age (im 24) approaches, tentitively. he looks shy, but interested. i strike up a conversation. To learn he is a solider who has just returned from Iraq. His name is Tim.
I will leave you on this thought... you know...always leave the ready at the juicy moment so they come back for more, but i promise once we hit the next library i will tell the story of solider Tim. Until then lets rock the vote and get bush out of office NOW!!!
much love, light, tofu in packages, and more miles to go before Florida,
Ariel
Sam and Rae came into Cleveland Ohio at night, I was already at my friend Ann's house and overwhelmingly excited!!! There was Rae, my soul sister and Sam someone I knew I'd become great friends with and the best part was the truck! An awesome painted vehicle talking about women and peace and why Bush needs to go. I knew I had to jump on.
And jump on I did, the very next morning as we set up registering voters down on Coventry street. It was the best feeling ever, talking to people and telling them how important it is to vote. I started learning all kinds of statistics, some that horrified me, like the fact that in the 2000 election 55 million women didnt vote. I couldnt believe it! but its true and that fact alone makes me that much more deteremined to talk to women and have our voices heard. we are 51 percent of the popullation, I am sick of not being heard or taken seriously, now is our time to be listened to. After getting people registered and talking about health care, education, and the war we headed to a school event. It was great to interact with teenagers. Even though most of them are too young to vote I think it is so important to start early in telling kids how our government works. I really believe in getting teenagers aware because they have powerful voice that should be heard as well. After the event in which i learned that Cleveland public schools are losing funding we all headed back to Ann's house to celebrate the Jewish holiday Sukkot. It was so amazing to be welcomed in by the Cleveland community, to have a house to stay at, good food to eat, and to participate in the holiday. Also it was tremendous to have everyone listen to us about how much we can make a difference this election. After day one, I knew I was hooked and I couldnt wait to get out there and do more Code Pink work. And work we did do...
The next day we rocked the down town scene! There we were at Tower Center registering voters. Of course some cops gave us hassle about our truck, but we talked to them peacefully and it turns out one of them was all for our message. And Rae got to give out another peaceful police button. Being downtown was very different from Coventry street, more people, more attitudes, more ideas flowing, more people to register. Also there were other folks down there from acorn and ACT working to register people. It made me happy to see all of us organized and out on the streets. We had a kick ass pink table with a huge pink ballon saying no to bush! and it was wonderful to see that we are not alone. that there are tons of cleveland folks getting the word out. that is the one amazing and good thing about having such an awful president, it has really forced all of us to get out and do something. it is so powerful to see so many people working for positive social change. i felt really powerful. in fact i know we are doing something huge. of course not all of cleveland is down for Kerry or for getting Bush out of office. I did meet some Bush supporters, which is always interesting, cause most of the time they can't really explain why they want to vote for Bush. They say things like he is a Christian, he has good values, and they like him. When I push them on what being Christian means they usually get uncomfortable. Anyway I thought our country was founded on the idea of seperation between Church and State, so why do so many people want a Christian president. I want religious freedom, I want the right to choose what happens to my body, I want the soliders in Iraq to come home safely, I want the Iraqi people to have electricity, healthy water, better hospitals, and schools and the power to make their own decisions without my country stepping on them, i want education in my country to improve, i want better textbooks ones that actually talk about what happened to the Natives of this land and what really went on during the horrible years of slavery, I want health care, i really want health care, not just for myself but for everyone, i want the whole country to be able to afford and have health care, I want the unemployement rate to decrease, i want the rate of people not having houses or enough food to eat to decrease, i want to feel safe walking alone on the streets, i want a healthy environment, less SUVs and more clean air, all these things that I want are things that Bush's "good values" will not get me or my country. He is not helping our education system, redusing pollution (in fact he doesnt even believe in global warming), he is not any closer to bringing our troops home from a war we never should have started, he has no intention of creating a universal health care program, and he has no intention of actually helping the Iraqi people rebuild their torn up bombed up nation. Furthermore he is not pro-choice and is not for my rights as a woman at all and to add to that he doesnt want to give people the right to marry who they want. this is not the man i want as my president. his values do not look good to me. So i am out in downtown to get my message out that our country needs a change. And there i am amongst all these people and this young man around my age (im 24) approaches, tentitively. he looks shy, but interested. i strike up a conversation. To learn he is a solider who has just returned from Iraq. His name is Tim.
I will leave you on this thought... you know...always leave the ready at the juicy moment so they come back for more, but i promise once we hit the next library i will tell the story of solider Tim. Until then lets rock the vote and get bush out of office NOW!!!
much love, light, tofu in packages, and more miles to go before Florida,
Ariel
posted by rae @ 6:26 PM
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