Saturday October 15th 2005, Winchester & Stevens Creek

I didn't really know him well, but I knew Lennox long before I started my
website. He was one of the people who said "I've seen you before" when
I started going to public events here in '99 or '00 or whenever it was
that I came back. I didn't remember him from the first gulf war time
frame, but being an activist was all new to me then. Lennox wasn't the
kind that dominates your attention. He was more the kind you notice
when the crowd gets more interesting than the speakers.

The first time I remember him was when he came to the Statewide Green
Party meeting in Arcata, back when that was the only place in the USA
that had a Green Party majority on the City Council. Lennox wore a very
tie died T shirt with exquisite Native American themed artwork on the
front. He gave me a couple of lessons on the nonviolent nature of peace
activism. One of them was holding up a hundred freshly printed Green
Party stickers to his nose and inhaling deeply. Then he said "the smell
of activism" with a smile. The other thing he told me there that stuck
was that watches are "time machines".

There are many pictures of Lennox on my website. He was always
showing off another great sign at marches, rallys, and peace vigils.
In fact, it was looking at those things and wanting more people to see
them that got me started putting demonstrations on my website.

One is the "Quagmire Accomplished" in the crowd of people listening here:
http://tian.greens.org/PaloAlto/AnarchistMarchJune05/index.html

Another is the "Quagmire Accomplished" he held in a yellow coat here:
http://tian.greens.org/MountainView/MVVPChristmas04/index.html

Another is the Rachel Corrie picture on this page:
http://tian.greens.org/PaloAlto/JusticeBusDec03/EventNotes.html
Rest in peace, Lennox Sweeney...

Tian

>When I was involved with the campaign to keep the women's clinics open in San Jose
>(I think it was in the summer of '92), I first ran into him. Then when I worked on the
>campaign to defeat Prop. 209, I was with one group, and he would always show up
>with the Greens at various actions the group I was with would participate in. We had
>more than a couple street corner discussions on green politics & issues of the day, and
>when the Dems punted on maintaining affirmative action and ceded the campaign to
>the state fascists, aka Pete Wilson, well, I started coming to Green meetings.

>I mentioned it to Gaylen, and she said, Isn't he the guy we saw in San Jose who had the
>"Quagmire Accomplished" banner. I told her it was, and that the last time I saw him,
>he seemed okay. I saw him a couple months back in front of the Grand Lake Theatre
>in Oakland when we were part of the last 1000 people to show up for 650 seats to hear
>U.S. Representative Barbara Lee speak.
>

>I mentioned Oakland, where I'm at now, in the context of a Seva Concert that Lennox
>and I had attended in Berkeley, when we discovered at about 1:30 a.m. that BART
>actually stops running sometime just after midnite. He knew someone in Oakland who
>took pity on us and let us stay with them. Lennox had kind of let it go, but it was a
>great concert. Jackson Brown, Bob Weir, Ram Dass, Odetta, among others.
>

Honor the memory of Lennox Sweeney

by doing what he would be doing today:

Saturday Peace Vigil

October 15, 12 noon

at the corner of Stevens Creek & Winchester, San Jose

End the War & Occupation! Bring the Troops Home Now!

This email message was sent by Lennox to the SBM list last week.*

From: Lennox Sweeney <lummox41@pacbell.net>
To: sbm@lists.riseup.net; VFP 101 <vfp101@yahoo.com>
Subject: [SBM] Help - Winchester peace vigil
Date: Fri, 7 Oct 2005 23:40:36 -0700

Attendence at the Saturday/Sunday peace vigil at Winchester and Stevens Creek has fallen to about 2-3. David Ledesma, the mainstay of this vigil, is off to Hawaii this weekend and next for a mix of business and pleasure.

I feel a little awkward out there alone and would appreciate any support. I'll be out from 11:30 to 1:30 Saturday and Sunday, Oct 8, 9, 15, 16 (and beyond) with some extra signs.

(This location has good visibility and LOTS of cars)

We vigiled for a couple of hours. There was some talk about Lennox, but mostly people just did what they do at these kind of things. Bob passed around a bowl of fresh orgainc apples from the tree in his back yard. Vida gave out fliers about an upcoming event. It was special because there were so many people. Lennox would have been pleased that his email had so much effect.

At the end we circled up and talked a bit. Donna recalled how Lennox had always been there, and always on the right side of every issue. Lennox's landlord of 25 years talked about all the activism stuff there is in the house, and how reliable Lennox had been about paying the rent. Somebody else mentioned that he had been arrested just two weeks ago on in front of the White House. Several people had nice things to say about the signs he was always coming up with, and everybody liked the way he was always smiling. We finished up by responding to "Lennox Sweeney" with "PRESENTE!"