Tucson Bush Unwelcoming, Goddess Style

In Tucson, I spend time visiting Tzadik and I work with CODEPINK Tucson to plan a just unwelcoming of Bush. Instead of protesting with signs and anti-Bush negative messages, we meet with a local female artists who makes goddess masks. She gives us each a mask--I am the Green Tara--and we form a processional with a huge pink satin banner that Nancy has made, which reads, "The Great Mother Says No!" We carry the banner through the streets, over footbridges over the downtown streets, and through busy crowds. When we arrive at the Tucson Convention Center, we begin to encircle the building, chanting Goddess incantations and songs about liberation and social justice. We reach the police baracade where attendees are lining up, but after we explain that we are doing a ritual act, and not just protesting, we are allowed to enter the enclosed area and bring our chant and message closer to the people going inside. Our processional converges with the large rally and we drop a pink slip "Bring the troops home now" banner over a huge brick wall. My spirit is nourished and fortified by this action, in a way that it has not been in times past. I am exceedingly grateful to Nancy and the other women for making action happen.

Over the weekend, we celebrate Tzadik's Ambush Makeover premier with a party at a local hotel with lots of his friends and family. We play Z-Jeopardy with lots of fun questions that Kristin, Anna, and I write and we stay up late talking. I am struggling through a cold, and by the morning light, I feel much clearer. Tzadik and I celebrate Easter with an easter egg and chocolate hunt and then I am off to return to California.

I drive all day and part way through the night to get to Salinas in time to help organize the Salinas Library Read-In.