By the way it looks, there’s no reason to believe this
“War on Terrorism” will stop unless we do something about it. The administration says War For All Our Lifetime, I’m assuming we're not talking about the life cycle of a fruit fly.
Locally, two events ongoing since the start of the war season confront head on the enormity of the situation. With a populace that is reportedly pro-war and a mainstream media that might not say otherwise, the Venice Peace March and the Santa Monica War Movie Night are bringing a pacifist message directly to that place, “the street” in a sustainable and remarkable way. They do it routinely in a relaxed yet serious manner.
Weekly, the Venice Peace March starts out at a leisurely Sunday 2:00+ PM from Rose Avenue and the Boardwalk. It winds its way among the hoi poi with its own cohesive songs. A sporty sound-system plays such anti-war clichés as Imagine by John Lennon. Yet, because this is such a mediated and interactive space, the clichés work to make magic. The cliche transforms and allows everyone to understand the present immediate where we are at peace. The march is a stream of possibility weaving unescorted amongst the sea of T-shirts, bikinis, ranters, belly dancers, masseuses, roller-bladers, the ghosts of the beats… The March ends up with an open forum soap box a few feet away from a pizza joint. Read an interview with Jim Smith, a Venice Peace March Organizer. Read some of the ideas of nonviolent peace activist and Venice Peace March participant Gina Record.
The Santa Monica AntiWar Movie Night is a weekly event in that other venerable west-side public space, the Santa Monica Third Street Promenade. This project broadcasts unsightly images of the war on walls whose surface extend to such esteemed places as the Gap and Starbucks. The projectionists hang around, chat and hand out flyers to anyone who happens by. Read an interview with the Third Street Projectionists.
[ Info on the April 20th anti-war mobilization in DC and San Francisco | Southern California POWER anti-war organization ]
