What made this
evening different was that we were joined by Peter Phillips of Project
Censored. He had come down from Sonoma County to give a talk in
Mountain View. As a former movement activist he took the time to vigil
with us before the event. I don't remember another speaker that had
done the same thing.
Peter Phillips began
his talk by saying that on Amnesty Internationals website there is
documentation that shows the Bush Administration is responsible for a
lot of torture type activity. It's not just in Iraq, Afghanistan, and
Guantanamo Bay. There is much more. Amnesty International has put out
press releases about the subject, but the media has only covered the
issue once or twice at the most. For change to occur the subject has to
get a lot of airplay, and that's not happening.
Phillips explained
that he was raised in a large farm family near Fresno, and he grew up
thinking it was our duty to make our country something to be proud of.
Torture was just not acceptable. His belief is still that if you see
something as wrong as what our government is doing now, you need to do
something to change it.
The first thing someone should do is get informed. There is a lot of
that kind of information in his book Impeach The President. That has
ample proof that the 2004 election was stolen, and that was just one of
the many crimes of the current administration. Phillips urged us to at
least contact our Representatives in Washington on a regular basis to
keep the pressure on them to change our country's course.
Phillips then introduced the other speaker, who is building a movement
to boycott big box chain stores, gas stations, and malls between Tax
Day and Earth Day. (April 15th to April 22nd, a one week period.) You
can find out more about that by clicking on
WeAreNotBuyingIt.org. He
asked us to visualize spending our money only at farmers markets,
independent corner stores, and other places where local grass roots
vendors can be found during that time.
