Another idea for public protest

Forwarded to me by a friend:

"Here's some history behind this idea: When Norway was occupied by Germany in 1940, Norwegian women began to knit RED caps for children as a way of letting everyone know that they did not like what was happening in their country, that they didn't like having their freedom taken away. My great aunt, Karin Knudson Myrstad, was one of the women who knit red caps for her children and others. Similarly, in Denmark, women knit red-white-and blue caps (colors of the Allies) for the very same reason.

The result was that whenever Norwegians and Danes left their homes -- to go to the store, to work, etc, they could see that THE MAJORITY opposed what was going on in their country. As you know, both countries organized effective Resistance efforts and changed history -- everything that happened began simply by wearing red!!!! (or the colors of the Allies, in Denmark).

1. BACKGROUND: I believe, as many of us do, that at the very heart of our democracy is our right to oppose the policies of our government. Increasingly, our Government is redefining "freedom" in ways that make too many Americans perceive that it is risky to oppose his policies -- and, in particular, current inroads about individual freedoms and family planning policies in the U.S. and abroad. However, many of us DO oppose what our government is doing to individual rights and family planning programs-- and I have an idea that will allow all of us to recognize each other very easily so we can see that WE ARE THE MAJORITY.

2. SO...I have been thinking that it's time to take action in a way that is effective and easy for all of us to do: Just wear red every Friday between now and election day.

Wear a little or a lot-- just be sure that when you leave your house to go about your day --to work, to school, to the store, to the gas station, wherever you go in your daily routine -- that everyone who sees you will see that you are wearing red because you believe in freedom and you don't agree with our current administration's family planning policies at home and abroad. I'm really certain that we'll see that lots of us wearing red for freedom and access to family planning services -- because WE ARE THE MAJORITY. We just need a way to show each other who we are!!! Between now and election day, ask everyone you know to wear red for "Freedom Fridays".

3. I have already spread the word to friends and have had a very enthusiastic response. This email has been forwarded around the country by many who receive it - feel free to send in on to your friends and co-workers."

-- Nadia Jensen

> The result was that whenever Norwegians and Danes left their
> homes -- to go to the store, to work, etc, they could see
> that THE MAJORITY opposed what was going on in their country.

Whenever I leave Berkeley, even to go to San Francisco or
San Mateo, I notice somthing. Flag stickers on cars. I don't
know what portion of cars, but many, many cars. When I went
to Bethlehem Pennsylvania a year ago, I saw flag stickers in
the majority of windows -- of houses. In my friend's
neighborhood, which is within walking distance of Lehigh
University. Even if I interpret the lack of a flag as a
sign of active disapproval with current affairs, I'm not too
hyped to find out what THE MAJORITY thinks about current
affairs. When I hear about friends spending time in prison
for reasons related to marijuana or other drugs, I realize I'm
not too hyped to find out what THE MAJORITY thinks about
anything.

-Carl

The idea of wearing red seems allot more useful than these one day
boycotts on Buying gas.

Carl Lumma wrote:

> > The result was that whenever Norwegians and Danes left their
> > homes -- to go to the store, to work, etc, they could see
> > that THE MAJORITY opposed what was going on in their country.
>
> Whenever I leave Berkeley, even to go to San Francisco or
> San Mateo, I notice somthing. Flag stickers on cars. I don't
> know what portion of cars, but many, many cars. When I went
> to Bethlehem Pennsylvania a year ago, I saw flag stickers in
> the majority of windows -- of houses. In my friend's
> neighborhood, which is within walking distance of Lehigh
> University. Even if I interpret the lack of a flag as a
> sign of active disapproval with current affairs, I'm not too
> hyped to find out what THE MAJORITY thinks about current
> affairs. When I hear about friends spending time in prison
> for reasons related to marijuana or other drugs, I realize I'm
> not too hyped to find out what THE MAJORITY thinks about
> anything.
>
> -Carl
>
>

-- -Kraig Grady
North American Embassy of Anaphoria Island
http://www.anaphoria.com
The Wandering Medicine Show
KXLU 88.9 FM WED 8-9PM PST

Carl,

--- In metatuning@yahoogroups.com, "Carl Lumma" <clumma@y...> wrote:
> When I hear about friends spending time in prison
> for reasons related to marijuana or other drugs, I realize I'm
> not too hyped to find out what THE MAJORITY thinks about
> anything.

I agree with you in the sense of not caring about what the majority thinks, and that would not be how I would have proposed the visual protest. I also decided it best to simply post what the original wrote, rather than paraphrase, so there it was.

My main reason for posting is that I have come to a point where I simply can not sit and do nothing, or say nothing, about directions that things are going in. I don't know exactly where you stand on protest or activism, though I have a general impression from past discussions online. What you choose to do or not do is, as always, a personal decision, and I don't expect anyone else to follow a particular course of action.

Naturally, I would hope people would exercise *some* action! But I'm realistic about it...

Cheers,
Jon

--- In metatuning@yahoogroups.com, "Jon Szanto" <JSZANTO@A...> wrote:

> My main reason for posting is that I have come to a point where I
simply can not sit and do nothing, or say nothing, about directions
that things are going in.

Hi Jon,

I agree completely, and I would gladly rotate my two red shirts on
alternate Fridays until the cows come home (or Bush goes home). But as
I've said before, the 2000 vote in my precinct was Gore 243, Nader
160, Bush 80. I keep anti-Bush bumper stickers on my car, but they're
drowned out on campus by cars entirely covered front-to-back with
anti-Bush bumper stickers. And then I go to New York City. It's like
we're in a civil war in which the two sides are divided up county by
county in a complex checkerboard pattern, and yet many of us never
encounter anyone on the other side. No matter what I do or don't do,
New York will go for Kerry. The only Bush voters I know are my deluded
parents, in Texas, and even were I to change their minds, Texas will
go for Bush anyway. It all comes down to seven or eight swing states.
I have gotten some response, mostly angry, from the anti-Bush
statements on my web site. That's the best I know how to do.

I'm reading David Brock's The Republican Noise Machine, which details
how over the last 25 years the right wing, funded by a few
billionaires, deliberately moved the public discourse toward the
extreme right by creating think tanks like the Heritage Foundation to
disseminate misinformation. It doesn't make me feel less helpless, but
it does confirm my sense that the public discourse has been hijacked,
and it also leads me to conclude that information is the key. In
researching politics on the web I've seen enough "Nuke the
camel-fuckers" statements to convince me that an alarmingly large
minority of Americans are vicious, bigoted animals unreachable by
reason. But the rest simply hear Rush Limbaugh tell them for three
hours a day that liberals "hate freedom" and hate America and want
everyone to be gay and communist. Republican think tanks (check out
www.heritage.org - it's really scary, and designed to look so neutral)
allow only extreme views on one side; progressive think tanks tend to
be balanced and take competing arguments into account, so it's a
completely unequal battle.

No matter what we do, nothing is going to change for the better in
this country (it seems to me at the moment) until enough money and
energy are put into neutralizing the Rush Limbaugh views and restoring
- not balance, because "balance" was the Republican ploy that got us
into this mess, but a sense of objective reality. In this respect the
press has really let us down. One thing I can imagine doing is
barraging newspapers and radio stations with complaints about
one-sided reporting; even NPR makes me sick with the free passes it
gives Bush. (He couldn't even *pronounce* Abu Ghraib last week,
stmbling over the word for what seemed like ten seconds, and no
commentator even mentioned the embarrassing fact.) The press is
sensitive to such complaints, and for decades now have only gotten
them from the right.

So there, I've made myself feel a little bit less helpless. Let me
know if we're on with the red shirts.

Cheers anyway,

Kyle

well i was thinking of making anaphorian t shirts- i guess they will have
to be red.

kylegann1955 wrote:

> Let me
> know if we're on with the red shirts.
>
> Cheers anyway,
>
> Kyle
>
>
> Meta Tuning meta-info:
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-- -Kraig Grady
North American Embassy of Anaphoria Island
http://www.anaphoria.com
The Wandering Medicine Show
KXLU 88.9 FM WED 8-9PM PST

>that would not be how I would have proposed the visual protest.
>I also decided it best to simply post what the original wrote,
>rather than paraphrase, so there it was.

Of course; I was reacting to him/her, not you.

>My main reason for posting is that I have come to a point where
>I simply can not sit and do nothing, or say nothing, about
>directions that things are going in. I don't know exactly where
>you stand on protest or activism, though I have a general
>impression from past discussions online. What you choose to do
>or not do is, as always, a personal decision, and I don't
>expect anyone else to follow a particular course of action.

I have no problem with protests, as long as they don't
directly inconvenience me. Though personally, I have never
felt, nor can I imagine feeling, the desire to communicate
in that way. ... Actually, once at the Philadelphia Folk
Fest I was part of a group of people protecting a group of
people drumming on 50gal. drums with 2x4s around a fire, to
protest the recent banning of drums from festival grounds
by the administration. I suppose you might call that a
protest. Though I was mainly there to watch the giant soap
bubbles float above the crowd while people aimed their pen
lights at them.

>Naturally, I would hope people would exercise *some* action!
>But I'm realistic about it...

Well, as always I try to set a positive example, and to that
end I put everything into trying to be creative with what I
do, to do as good a job as I possibly can at work and play.
I don't know how effective I am at it, but it is the route
I've chosen.

-Carl

KG,

--- In metatuning@yahoogroups.com, kraig grady <kraiggrady@a...> wrote:
> well i was thinking of making anaphorian t shirts- i guess they will have
> to be red.

Consider this your first sale: make mine a Large, please.

Cheers,
Jon

Well, it's of no practical value I suppose, but this little Eric Idle
song (of Monty Python fame) helps me get through the day in a cheerier
mood:

<a
href=http://www.pythonline.com/plugs/idle/FCCSong.mp3>http://www.pythonline.com/plugs/idle/FCCSong.mp3</a>

Cheers,

Kyle

I loved it.....thanks !!!

On Wednesday 02 June 2004 07:59 pm, kylegann1955 wrote:
> Well, it's of no practical value I suppose, but this little Eric Idle
> song (of Monty Python fame) helps me get through the day in a cheerier
> mood:
>
>
> <a
> href=http://www.pythonline.com/plugs/idle/FCCSong.mp3>http://www.pythonline
>.com/plugs/idle/FCCSong.mp3</a>
>
> Cheers,
>
> Kyle
>
>
>
>
>
> Meta Tuning meta-info:
>
> To unsubscribe, send an email to:
> metatuning-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
>
> Web page is http://groups.yahoo.com/groups/metatuning/
>
> To post to the list, send to
> metatuning@yahoogroups.com
>
> You don't have to be a member to post.
>
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>

--
Aaron Krister Johnson
http://www.dividebypi.com
http://www.akjmusic.com

--- In metatuning@yahoogroups.com, "Carl Lumma" <clumma@y...> wrote:

> Actually, once at the Philadelphia Folk
> Fest

You went to the Philly Folk Fest? When? How was it? I just got back
from Kerrville Folk Festival -- an incredible time -- and I've been
to Falcon Ridge several times. I'd like to check out Philly soon . . .

P.S. One of the New Folk winners, John William Davis of Indian Hills,
CO, absolutely blew everyone away and immediately sold out his CDs. I
was jamming with him later and he said his friend was the authority
on microtonal music. Yup, he's friends with Neil Haverstick.

> > Actually, once at the Philadelphia Folk Fest
>
> You went to the Philly Folk Fest? When? How was it?

The PFF doesn't take place in Philadelphia proper, but
rather on a farm just on the edge of the school district
in which I grew up, about an hour's drive from the city.
So I've been several times. It was always a wonderful
experience. 1999 was the last year I attended, and it
had been getting progressively more crowded.

Naturally, we had lots of fun on that farm even when
the Folk Fest wasn't in session! :)

> I just got back from Kerrville Folk Festival -- an
> incredible time -- and I've been to Falcon Ridge several
> times. I'd like to check out Philly soon . . .

I hadn't heard of Kerrville or Falcon Ridge... or I don't
remember having heard about them.

> P.S. One of the New Folk winners, John William Davis
> of Indian Hills, CO, absolutely blew everyone away and
> immediately sold out his CDs. I was jamming with him
> later and he said his friend was the authority on
> microtonal music. Yup, he's friends with Neil Haverstick.

Awesome!!

I just found out a good friend of mine played harpsichord
at Microfest in LA! The Berkeley Early Music festival is
in full swing this weekend, and theres lots o' eXXtreme
Meantone in store!

-Carl