by AnnaLivia » Wed Aug 17, 2005 3:22 pm
Hey, get this. My neighbors just phoned to ask me about my tent and sign.<br><br>They’re an elderly couple, dyed-in-the-wool Republicans whose flag never leaves its pole with the plastic red, white, and blue flowers surrounding its base, and he’s a Vet. They’re very active in their church and in the American Legion, extremely proud of America’s role in WWII, and are certain the Mister’s life was saved by dropping the A-bombs on Japan. They attend every ceremony around that honors Vets. They have, for both elections, had Bush/Cheney yardsigns in their yard.<br><br>We mostly neighbor “over-the-fence”, “at arms length”, if you will. I don’t know what they thought, about what I had painted on my garage about the rapes of Iraqi children in Saddam’s former prisons courtesy of Bush voters. Ahem.<br><br>The other day, I called the Missus, who just happens to bake the best zucchini bread you ever tasted, to invite her to come get some veggies from this prolific garden of mine…and she came and brought along the latest photos of the grandkids. One was of the “such a nice boy” new boyfriend of one granddaughter. I had to bite my tongue about the guy’s t-shirt, which was emblazoned with…wait for it… “America, Love it or leave it”<br><br>For the sake of not making enemies and inviting bad will from right next door, and considering their age, I have never pushed hard on politics with them, though I have obviously not disguised my passion and my own “persuasions”.<br><br>So, how did this phone call go?<br><br>It was incredible. We talked longer than we ever have before, and totally honestly in a way I could hardly have imagined. Finally, all I have spent the past years learning and digesting came together, and I was able to establish enormous common ground with her (it was the wife on the phone), and I absolutely guarantee this nice lady will never think quite the same way again about the politics of this country. I’m telling you, barriers came tumbling down and she was (rather helplessly) receptive to all I revealed to her.<br><br>I explained about the Camp Casey in Texas…all about Casey and Cindy Sheehan, about how Cindy suggested that, short of coming to Texas we could all erect a Camp Casey in our yards. Told her that it is my conviction that we are in great danger and it is high-time for all of us to speak up and not just pay lip-service to Democracy.<br><br>Then I told her that I had wanted for quite some time to ask her whether she feels betrayed by George Bush yet,<br><br>...and we were off to the races, my friends. She didn’t exactly know how to answer that, which, I think, she just that moment realized.<br><br>She believed me about where the Bush family fortune came from, because I told her about that collusion with Nazis and Fascists being a matter not of speculation but of official congressional record, and she was shocked to her core by that one, ladies and gentlemen.<br><br>I really pressed on how we were lied into war and on “how dare this chickenhawk Bush squander our wealth and the very lives of citizens so nobly-motivated as to willingly put themselves in harm’s way to protect the rest of us!” I said the flag so beautiful to her has been turned into a scrap of cloth Bush tries to cloak himself in, if we let him do that. I said it’s not about Repubs vs. Dems, and pointed out the many ways the Bush cronies are profiteering off war and escalating it.<br><br>I spoke of the enormous cost in wealth and in human suffering, and of how needless it all is.<br><br>To shorten this, we covered a lot of ground, eventually even getting around to big-pharma. (No, she didn’t know her tax dollars paid for the facilities they use to do their R&D while they claim it’s so expensive to them.)<br><br><br>I’ll come down off this morning’s high, I know, because trouble is hardly over, but right now, I feel like dancing.<br><br>And after a little jig, I have to go finish my explanatory flyer about Camp Casey. I don’t want to get caught without it ready, if anyone else asks me about my little protest.<br><br>Then I can hardly wait to get back in here and catch up with a bunch of enticing other threads……..<br><br>Sorry to be cliché, but this place really does rock.<br><br>Cheers!<br>ALP<br> <p></p><i></i>