Maryrose Dolezal's blog

Adrienne is the Executive Director of the Ruckus Society, a partner in the Not Your Soldier project along with the War Resisters League & the Fellowship of Reconciliation.

Welcome to the Age of Yes!

Tuesday, November 11, 2008 at 10:34am

I’m writing a long and in-depth piece analyzing the election and the outcomes, and the president-elect’s particular approach and potential legacies. I started to write it here but it got too big and unwieldy. There’s a portion of it, though, that I am excited about and want to share.

“It must be said that the majority of humans ever to have lived, have existed in conditions of immiseration and servitude to a small minority of wealthy and powerful people — until the number of whole lives is greater than the number of shattered lives, we remain stuck in some kind of prehistory, unworthy of humanity’s great spirit. History as a story worth telling will only begin when the whole lives outnumber the wasted ones.” — The Years of Rice and Salt, Kim Stanley Robinson

Here's a slideshow of photos from the tour so far. Click the arrow in the center to start the show.

Paula Andrea Galeano Bermúdez is a 28 year-old conscientious objector from Colombia. She is an activist with the Red Juvenil (Medellin Youth Network), an organization that was started in 1990 by young people who had lost loved ones to the armed conflict. The heart of the Network’s mission is to encourage young people’s belief in the value of all human life, to work together to overcome fear, and to become empowered to live and espouse these values. The group trains youth in nonviolence and cooperative play, supports young men who refuse to serve with the police, military or illegal armed groups, and promotes respect for human rights and young people’s ideas in Colombian society.

Peace Soldier provides a microphone for young American combat veterans to share their perspectives on the realities of war and the meaning of peace. The objective of the project is help ensure these young voices are heard loudly and considered frankly as we form our individual opinions and collective actions today and in the years to come. Peace Soldier brings together a wide range of creative works developed from the words and images of combat veterans, and distributes them using online media and public spaces. A series of peace soldier photography/essay portraits were unveiled publicly in September at 111 Minna Gallery in San Francisco and Art Storm Gallery in Houston.

We kicked off the Carbondale stop last Sunday with an Art and Action training attended by ~20 students and community members.

The Art and Action workshops are facilitated by Invincible and Isaac Martin. Along with a mix of pop ed, it includes Invincible’s docu-music video "Locust." Directed by Joe Namy, Locust features Invincible and fellow Detroit-based hip hop artist Finale rhyming about the impacts of unsustainable development on the Motor City. The video includes interviews with community activists discussing displacement and prederatory planning vs. sustainable development in Detroit. Check it out below or at http://emergencemusic.net.

With us on the Drop Beats Not Bombs tour are Invincible, Paula Galeano, Not Your Soldier facilitator Isaac Martin, & FOR staff Liza Smith and Maryrose Dolezal. Missing from the tour, at the moment, are tour members Shauen Pearce and Brie Phillips. Shauen participated in the tour launch in St. Paul last week, and Brie will be joining at the stop in Allentown, PA next weekend. Shauen and Brie are providing back up from the offices in St. Paul and Washington DC.

Tour member Isaac Martin joined at the last minute due to staff illnesses to lead workshop facilitation. He has also been invaluable in helping with merchandise sales, translation, and packing the van! Isaac has been journaling about his experience along the way — check it out below, and check back for more soon!

Last night the Drop Beats Not Bombs tour had an awesome show at Quennect 4, hosted by the American Friends Service Committee in Chicago!

The event, "Peace is Always in Fashion," started with a fashion show to protest Sear’s new "First Infantry" line of military issues apparel, and to offer non-military based fashion options. The fashions were modeled by students who were involved with the AFSC Chicago’s 2008 summer institute, a program for high schoolers to learn about militarism and alternatives to military service, and other friends and supporters. Following the fashion show, we were entertained by Primo Dance Troup from University of Illinois Chicago, Perfect Kiss, an excellent new wave band, local rapper Popz Crakaz, DJ Orville Kline, & Invincible, who fininshed the night with a full set including guest appearnces by Chicago based FM Supreme and b-boy Super In Light.

Police repression and unjust arrests in the Twin Cities related to the Republican National Convention have caused concern among nonviolent organizers.

Youth Against War and Racism (YAWR), a partner organization of FOR, has asked us to mobilize our members and networks to support the rights of youth to resist militarism in their schools and in our country through a nonviolent student walk-out on the last day of the RNC.

On Tuesday 9/2, some households in the St. Paul school district received a pre-recorded phone call warning parents that the streets would be unsafe for their children on Thursday, and to please urge their children not to attend the student strike.

YAWR has called on our support for these solidarity actions:

[Editor's note: Maryrose is the Co-Director of FOR's Youth and Militarism Program, and is currently participating in our Youth Arts and Action Delegation to Colombia.]

I asked Sharon Lungo from the Ruckus Society, one of the awesome delegation members, to talk to me for a minute about her experience so far with the delegation:

MR: Sharon, will you talk for a minute about the delegation so far, and what happened today?