The peace movement to me is not so much about vision as about providing information and simple, basic organizing.
Over three Saturdays, Hope Marston and I have been tabling opposite the Saturday Market for Eugene PeaceWorks. We have been getting signatures on our “Cut the funding” petition, passing out literature and talking to people. (Hope does most of the talking.)
So far, in a total of about six hours, we have gathered 133 petition signatures and 37 email addresses for our “Cut the funding” list. It seems to me to be a reasonable use of our time, a way to do public outreach and bring some people into our network, which hopefully will help motivate them to take action.
But it requires a large tolerance for indifference. Most people just walk by us, and probably we would get very little attention if Hope weren’t standing on the sidewalk in front of our table actively engaging people. In a polite way, she makes herself hard to ignore.
Part of the problem may be the location. The Saturday Market is a big weekly party, with a lot of visual clutter competing for attention. We have a big sign, and Hope and I both wear “Eugene PeaceWorks” T-shirts, but I notice most eyes slide right by us. I’ve been thinking about trying a visually quieter venue, such as the library or Kiva.
However, from some of the verbal responses we get, a larger problem is that most people don’t know much about the wars, and don’t care. They don’t think it affects them. One woman told us that as long as we’re fighting these wars they have to be funded, which has it exactly backwards: As long as they’re funded they’ll be fought.
My guess is that will change when we enter an economic crises, which could happen any day now, and people finally understand that the U.S. does not have limitless resources, and we cannot afford the wars. Yesterday I read that polls show Americans are already turning against government spending and deficits.
If anyone in the Eugene-Springfield area wants to work with us on this EPW outreach project, please get in touch.
Lynn Porter
