Columbus Codepink, Dixie Chicks, Rockin' Home Video
On Saturday, we rise early and drive back into Columbus, where we rally in protest outside of a convention center where Bush is speaking to the Homebuyers of America group. We encounter a lot of nasty Republicans. There is also this creepy father-son pair of protesters who are linking Bush to Hitler with their signs and hand gestures in eerie ways. We shout and rally next to the Billionaires for Bush. I meet a friendly reporter and I talk with two Oregonite men who are selling Bush buttons and bumper stickers. They say that they are definitely voting for Kerry and that they go to Kerry rallies, too, to sell their paraphernalia. They just flip over the large poster board with pins, and they’re ready to go. This strikes me as very ironic, or at least interesting, what someone will do to make a buck. We connect with two phenomenal women from the Columbus Codepink chapter—Lezlie, who is of small, pixie stature with long hot pink hair and high cheek bones, and Linda, whose skin is caramel like she just emerged from the desert, and has spiked, short hair and a stunning laugh.
Linda invites us to her house for lunch. We gratefully oblige and through the course of our afternoon together, we find out that Linda was a Christian fundamentalist for ten years and then, in the process of coming out as a lesbian, she was excommunicated and shunned from her church, her family and friends, her entire community. She is now a humbly righteous peace activist with an outstandingly courageous spirit and a compassionate heart. She finds wisdom in the teachings of Jesus, but does not seek her faith through institutional religion any longer. Linda makes us the most delicious meal I can remember tasting in quite some time and we interview her afterwards on the grass outside. We all take a photo together in front of the truck.
Back on the road, Ariel, Sam, and I rock out with Aretha Franklin and some great spoken word poems from Ariel’s peace mix cds. We celebrate our great Columbus trip and can’t keep up with the tallying of how many cars are zooming past us and honking positively. It seems that everyone on the road today is pro-peace, anti-Bush.
In Cleveland, we go directly to the Dixie Chicks and James Taylor concert downtown, put on through the Vote for Change concert series. I get a woman from MoveOn to let us in and we get a whole Codepink table space. I see the Dixie Chicks sing their traveling soldier song and later, during the encore, Ariel and I are close to each other watching the Chicks sing Landslide. We can’t stand right next to each other, because the security guards are being strict about the number of folks per aisle (totally different scene than Ani the night before), but we are about a row apart and we keep glancing over each other; there’s this fantastic sisterhood energy between us. After the show, Sam and I close up shop with the Codepink table after being flooded by interested women, and Ariel rushes around the back to get the Chicks to sign a pink slip that says “Chicks for Peace.” I go around the back and meet up with Ariel, who is standing in the bitter cold with a troupe of giggling, excited fans—young ladies wearing tight jeans with nice long hair and sweet demeanor. They discuss lining up to be orderly when the Chicks come out and I stare on in awe at how a group of women at a country concert can be so different from other concerts… There’s also a super-fan cowboy dude who follows the Chicks everywhere in his big red pickup truck. We wait, and wait, and wait for them to come out. In the meantime, we get a slip signed by James Taylor- YEAH! Ariel and I are interviewed on camera by the Vote for Change folks, one of whom lives in Long Island near Ariel. Then, finally, the manager comes out and takes all the stuff people want signed and carries it onto the bus so the ladies can sign it- they won’t even come out! But they do all sign the pink slip, so we leave happy.
Slips in hand, heater blasting, snuggled together in the truck, we all chatter about our fantastic team action and our three slips. We get back to Ann’s house and Sam goes to sleep. Ariel and I stay up with Ann and Jeremy, and later Jessica, and we all make this outstanding video of ourselves, which includes Jeremy in a pink slip performing interpretive ballet, and Ann and Ariel in full character as old Jewish women with heavy Long Island accents. Ariel and I close the film with close ups of our goddess necklaces (or attempts at such).
Linda invites us to her house for lunch. We gratefully oblige and through the course of our afternoon together, we find out that Linda was a Christian fundamentalist for ten years and then, in the process of coming out as a lesbian, she was excommunicated and shunned from her church, her family and friends, her entire community. She is now a humbly righteous peace activist with an outstandingly courageous spirit and a compassionate heart. She finds wisdom in the teachings of Jesus, but does not seek her faith through institutional religion any longer. Linda makes us the most delicious meal I can remember tasting in quite some time and we interview her afterwards on the grass outside. We all take a photo together in front of the truck.
Back on the road, Ariel, Sam, and I rock out with Aretha Franklin and some great spoken word poems from Ariel’s peace mix cds. We celebrate our great Columbus trip and can’t keep up with the tallying of how many cars are zooming past us and honking positively. It seems that everyone on the road today is pro-peace, anti-Bush.
In Cleveland, we go directly to the Dixie Chicks and James Taylor concert downtown, put on through the Vote for Change concert series. I get a woman from MoveOn to let us in and we get a whole Codepink table space. I see the Dixie Chicks sing their traveling soldier song and later, during the encore, Ariel and I are close to each other watching the Chicks sing Landslide. We can’t stand right next to each other, because the security guards are being strict about the number of folks per aisle (totally different scene than Ani the night before), but we are about a row apart and we keep glancing over each other; there’s this fantastic sisterhood energy between us. After the show, Sam and I close up shop with the Codepink table after being flooded by interested women, and Ariel rushes around the back to get the Chicks to sign a pink slip that says “Chicks for Peace.” I go around the back and meet up with Ariel, who is standing in the bitter cold with a troupe of giggling, excited fans—young ladies wearing tight jeans with nice long hair and sweet demeanor. They discuss lining up to be orderly when the Chicks come out and I stare on in awe at how a group of women at a country concert can be so different from other concerts… There’s also a super-fan cowboy dude who follows the Chicks everywhere in his big red pickup truck. We wait, and wait, and wait for them to come out. In the meantime, we get a slip signed by James Taylor- YEAH! Ariel and I are interviewed on camera by the Vote for Change folks, one of whom lives in Long Island near Ariel. Then, finally, the manager comes out and takes all the stuff people want signed and carries it onto the bus so the ladies can sign it- they won’t even come out! But they do all sign the pink slip, so we leave happy.
Slips in hand, heater blasting, snuggled together in the truck, we all chatter about our fantastic team action and our three slips. We get back to Ann’s house and Sam goes to sleep. Ariel and I stay up with Ann and Jeremy, and later Jessica, and we all make this outstanding video of ourselves, which includes Jeremy in a pink slip performing interpretive ballet, and Ann and Ariel in full character as old Jewish women with heavy Long Island accents. Ariel and I close the film with close ups of our goddess necklaces (or attempts at such).
posted by rae @ 9:50 AM
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