Friday, March 21, 2003

War Day

I was at the rally in Terry Schrunk Plaza yesterday afternoon. It was great to see so much energy, especially from the younger folks. While I was there, I ran into an old friend of mine, Brian Thomas who was there with his digital camera. He shot the photo above and has a picture page of yesterday’s actions, and other Portland protests.

Again, the Portland police used military tactics against civilians. Although they were fairly restained in their treatment of the protesters at first, when the local news was over and they weren’t as worried about being photographed, they started using concussion grenades, as well as pepper spray and beatings.

On Monday in Salem, Oregon State Senator John Minnis (R- Fairview) is introducing the draconian Senate Bill 742 which would make acts of civil disobedience punishable by 25 years to life in prison. This is blatantly unconstitutional. It defines many methods of protest as “terrorism”. Here’s a link to the full text, the part about protests are in Section 1.

Here is a great analysis of Bush’s postwar plans. And here’s another at Working for Change. In fact, you should take a look at their other columnists. Much food for thought!

Here’s the Citizen’s Declaration at MoveOn.org.
And though it’s a little late, http://www.votenowar.org/.