Latest news from the Pastors for Peace team on the road
Greetings and best wishes to all the Pastors for Peace network, from the team that is on the road from Hidalgo to the presidential ranch in Crawford, TX!
This is a somewhat belated note, for reasons you will see as you read further: we have been busy!
It's been suggested to us that we should mount a webcam on our bus, to make our journey more interactive, so that folks in our network can follow along. You should know that the people who are actually here on the road said no to that (and Bill Hill said "NO!!!") But I'll try to give you a flavor of where we are now and what we have been doing:
We are just pulling out of Corpus Christi, TX, after completing emergency infrastructure repairs to a fan belt and a dead cell phone. Bill is driving the Rene bus, which is loaded up with 118 blue-labeled boxes. Ellen is sitting on the bus, with my laptop plugged into the inverter, writing this message and talking on the new cell phone. Luis and Bob are caravanning behind the bus, and also networking by cell phone as they go. Lucius will be back with us tonight, after speaking at a great event in NYC last night. We all have our next stop in San Antonio, then Austin, where we will be doing more media outreach.
Our last couple of days in Hidalgo were very productive and full of good feeling. We held another wonderful weekly vigil on the international bridge on Wednesday afternoon. We opened with prayer and a reading from the 23rd psalm (though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil, for thou art with me...), and then spent a very spirited two hours chanting (contra el bloqueo - si se puede!), and singing, and praying, and passing out flyers all along the international bridge. We were a strong presence with our banners and flyers and song, and we got lots of thumbs-up from passersby. We were joined by representatives of People for Peace and Justice (McAllen), Amigos de Cuba (Reynosa), and a group of university students.
Ellen left the vigil early to attend the monthly meeting of People for Peace and Justice.
Another piece of good news is that the local people from Hidalgo/Reynosa/McAllen have agreed to keep our vigils going even while we are out of town! Several of the organizations, which include Amigos de Cuba, the Centro Fronterizo por los Derechos Humanos (Reynosa), People for Peace and Justice, the Quakers and a variety of church folk, have not worked with each other before but are networking now around our project. This is yet another frequent and important side effect of our work!
We should also note that there is a lot of interest here in the Latin American School of Medicine scholarship program, and that we will be back as soon as time allows to do a local meeting to promote the scholarship offer.
We pulled out of Hidalgo yesterday in the early afternoon, after doing interviews with Univision TV and the Monitor newspaper. Then we drove to Corpus Christi, and had great interviews on three TV news channels, and then we left town! (Or tried to, until that fan belt busted...)
What we are telling everyone along the way is that we have had a great reception in Hidalgo, but we know that the decision about the computers will be made at the White House so that's where we are headed. We will be doing media work in San Antonio and Austin today. We are really looking forward to the time in Crawford. Of course we have also been following the Cindy Sheehan story; we will be honored to be set up camp alongside her anti-war protest when we get to Crawford, and we hear that they are also glad that we will be there.
We have heard that successful vigils were also held in about 20 cities this week across the US. One of them was in New York where over 120 people came to a meeting to hear a report back from some of the New York caravanistas (especially Esperanza and Lucius) as well as returning members of the Venceremos Brigade. The meeting ended with a spirited candlelight walk, chanting slogans against the blockade on the way, to the US mission to the United Nations where a prayer vigil was held.
Look at how the campaign is growing!
What we need you to do is: KEEP CALLING
To the offices in Washington which will be involved in making the decision to release the computers:
Jayson Ahern, Assistant Commissioner of Customs: 202/344-1620
Cuba Desk, State Department: 202/647-9273
Michael Turner, Director of Export Enforcement, Commerce Department: 202/482-1208, ext. 3
And to your congressional representatives and senators. Congress is officially in recess until early September, and you are more likely to find the members of Congress at their home offices than in DC. But talk to the key staff person, whether s/he is located in DC (federal legislative switchboard 202-225-3121) or in the district office. And then call again and again! We need the help of Congress to put serious pressure on the Bush administration. Get your representatives to put pressure on Carlos Gutierrez, the Secretary of Commerce, to demand that the computers be released. Organize a visit to your local Congressional offices if you can.
posted by caravanista @ 2:56 PM
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