This quest for peace, in homage to Mahatma Gandhi's historic 1930 Salt March, will start in Tijuana, Mexico on March 12, go through the Marine Corps Depot at Camp Pendleton and the Cesar Chavez burial site in La Paz, CA (near Tehachapi), and end in The Mission district of San Francisco with a memorial ceremony and blood drive on March 27.
241 mile MARCH for PEACE: Latino Voice of Opposition to the War (tags)
A 241 mile march that aims at ensuring that the Latino voice of opposition to the War is heard loud and clear across the Americas.
Whoever Doesn't Really Try, Consents. (tags)
Mass symbolic, sanctioned marches that do nothing to actually change the status quo serve as painless absolution rituals, that allow the participants to “bear witness”, to “speak truth to power” and to “wash their hands of the blood of empire.” Marches, with their biting satire and snazzy costumes, do not provide a real means for stopping the carnage they deplore. A “functioning” democracy needs some form of sanctioned, orderly protest to stimulate discussion, and if the current regime were really “that bad” they wouldn’t allow big demonstrations, right? Ineffective activism, like regulated marches, actually provides a façade of healthy interchange and is welcomed by the status quo. The majority of demonstrators are aware well in advance that their actions will likely have no tangible effect on the negative of the empire, but they go to a huge rally and can sleep better at night having chanted out their guilt. Just as it can be said qui tacet consentive videtu (whoever is silent consents) it can also be said “whoever doesn’t really try, consents.”