rae's CODEPINK road journal

Wednesday, July 05, 2006

Troops Home FAST!

This summer we started a campaign called "Troops Home Fast": a national fast and hunger strike to bring our troops home. The fast began on the 4th of July in DC and around the country. To read about the fast, visit www.troopshomefast.org. The fast culminated in an offer from several Iraqi Parliamentarians to meet with fasters in Amman, Jordan to discuss their plan for reconciliation. At the time, the Lebanon-Israel conflict was raging, and the delegation that went to Jordan traveled to Lebanon afterwards to meet with refugees and express their distress over the situation. Many people continue to fast once a week to make a personal sacrifice in honor of the lives lost in the war, and give the money they would have spent on food that day to an organization (like CODEPINK or Iraq Vets Against the War) that's working to stop the Iraq War.


I fasted for about two weeks and helped organize a public daily fast outside Senator Feinstein's San Francisco office. I had so much energy while fasting, and felt so clear about our work for peace. Our fast culminated in a visit to Feinstein's office--we were not allowed upstairs, but through the communication of Iraqi Sureya Sayadi and Iraq War Veteran Eli Painted Crow, we were able to meet with some aides in the lobby, and presented them with thousands of Give Peace a Vote petitions and banners. To read about my blogs from the SF fast, including our experiences camping out at Feinstein's new home, and an audio clip from an interview, visit: http://www.codepinkalert.org//article.php?id=1086.


Read about the fast outside the Capitol in Sacramento at:
http://www.troopshomefast.org/article.php?id=1104