The guy thanked us all for being here and then explained the gist of what that sign said. He emphasized that we are celebrating the cause of world peace with our gathering here on the 100th anniversary of the end of WW I, AKA "The War to End All Wars".

     

Nassim explained that the Greens believe everything is connected to everything else, and that our struggle has a global and a local component. She urged people to get involved in our struggle to develop world peace.

        

That Jewish Voice for Peace talked about how cruel the Israeli occupation of Palestine is. She urged us to divest from companies that do business with it.

I talked about my Grandfather who had been a dough boy in WW I. He and my father had argued a lot about the Viet Nam war. I had learned so much about the world from listening to that. Now I pursue peace by sharing pistachios at every opportunity.



Then the Raging Grannies sang a few songs urging us to look beyond business as usual scenarios.

        

They were followed by this woman who did a dance for peace. The song she danced with had the word "wait" in the lyrics over and over.

        

           

Sherat then explained that he would dance for peace to the tune of Michael Jackson's "Heal The World."

     

     

        

  

After the musicians played a tune for peace we rushed off to march with Team RWB in the Veterans Day Parade. We were plenty early for that. What made it great was a chance to push stickers among the veteran community in this huge parking lot while the parade was assembling. What made it chilling were the large herds of teenagers in uniforms doing synchronized rah rah routines. The event was clearly about military tradition getting passed down.



The parade itself wasn't that much. Just a couple of miles or so, past lots of military families and every one else that wanted to watch a parade in San Jose that morning.



I had a moment when the announcer said in part that "Team RWB is all about connecting veterans with their communities." I'm happy to be part of that!



Got to march under a huge American Flag at one point.



Then we went up to pay respects to my Grandparents in El Cerrito. It was MUCH smokier up there. They were so much closer to Paradise burning.





Left a flag from the march on my Grandfathers grave. Left a bouquet of flowers on my Grandmothers. It was about what they had wanted me to do.

  

Going into the El Cerrito Plaza BART station the farecard machine ate our BART tickets. The station agent gave us these to get out with. He said "Don't even bother with those other tickets."

Notice the bungee cord holding the bikes in place. That keeps them from drifting very well.