Salinas Library Read-In
I spend a full week in Salinas working with the Salinas Action League (SAL), UFW, LUPE, and other community organizations and activists to make sure that everything is ready for the Library Read-In at Cesar Chavez library. My favorite memories are of staying with Robin and Peter, doing a banner drop over Highway 101 with Adele at the crack of dawn, navigating around town and learning my way through the streets, flyering at the library before it opened and seeing the huge line of eager library patrons--realizing the great importance of this work, coordinating the CODEPINK booth area, making giant black and white printed poster signs that had slogans such as, "Libros no bombas!" "Books, not bombs!" "Libraries, not jails!"
The background is that the Salinas city libraries--3 total--are threatened with closure because of insufficient funds. We formed a coalition to organize around the issue and to pressure the CA government for more funding, linking the closing of the libraries with the cost of the war in Iraq.
The event was a huge success in grassroots organizing, in raising awareness at a national and local level, and in spreading a message of hope. However, the link to the local cost of war could have been stronger and the actual result--good fundraising enabling the libraries to be open a little longer and a field trip with a bus load of kids to the capital to present petitions and loby to elected officials--didn't yeild significant political or financial results. This will continue to be a big issue.
I will never forget the women who brought giant pots of champurado and chamomille tea in the middle of the night, the singing, the hoolahooping, the readings in the wee hours of the morning, the camping, the set-up process, the incredible muralist I met from Sunset Street, the man with a gree moustache making french toast in the morning, my parents' attendance, and so much more. To read more about this action, visit http://www.codepinkalert.org/article.php?id=188.
The background is that the Salinas city libraries--3 total--are threatened with closure because of insufficient funds. We formed a coalition to organize around the issue and to pressure the CA government for more funding, linking the closing of the libraries with the cost of the war in Iraq.
The event was a huge success in grassroots organizing, in raising awareness at a national and local level, and in spreading a message of hope. However, the link to the local cost of war could have been stronger and the actual result--good fundraising enabling the libraries to be open a little longer and a field trip with a bus load of kids to the capital to present petitions and loby to elected officials--didn't yeild significant political or financial results. This will continue to be a big issue.
I will never forget the women who brought giant pots of champurado and chamomille tea in the middle of the night, the singing, the hoolahooping, the readings in the wee hours of the morning, the camping, the set-up process, the incredible muralist I met from Sunset Street, the man with a gree moustache making french toast in the morning, my parents' attendance, and so much more. To read more about this action, visit http://www.codepinkalert.org/article.php?id=188.
posted by rae @ 2:06 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home