Please come to the Capitol at Noon today! Bring Them Home Now!

[katinmn]

I heard some of the speakers last night at a welcome gathering.

Each story is unique and inspiring. One Natl Guard member back from Iraq is being re-deployed to Louisiana next week. When he told us we stood and cheered. That's where the NG should be. Instead, 78,000 are in Iraq.

His stories about the lack of armour and what soldiers do to get by will make your blood BOIL.

Gold Star Families for Peace members came here to tell it like it really is to lose a child in an elective war.

Other speakers are Coleen Rowley and Becky Lourey.

Our numbers have to grow if we are to have any hope of stopping the war machine.

Please be there if you can. :hug:

[katinmn]

1. Good to see you there, bvar and dpbrown!

I love you guys. :loveya:

Turnout was fair at a few hundred but it was what I expected given the short notice and it being a holiday weekend.

I'm glad it wrapped up just before the big wind came up.
All of our speakers did great. I am still without a camera so I look forward to seeing others' pics.

Here's the list of speakers:
•Welcome/Introductions – Barry Riesch – Veterans for Peace
•John Varone, President, Minnesota Chapter 27 Veterans for Peace
•Karen Meredith of Mountain View, CA, Gold Star Families for Peace
•Al Zappala of Philadelphia, PA, Gold Star Families for Peace, and his son Raphael Zappala
•Stacy Bannerman of Kent, WA, Military Families Speak Out
•Sherry Glover of Houston, TX, Military Families Speak Out
•Tamara Rosenleaf of Belton, TX, Military Families Speak Out
•Cody Camacho of Chicago, IL -- Iraq War Veterans Against the War
•Steve Renser – National Guard member – served in Iraq, will be deployed to LA next week
•State Sen. Becky Lourey (She's so lovely and she was fired up!)
•Coleen Rowley, Retired FBI counter-terrorism agent
•David Foster, Director, United Steelworkers District 11
•Lowell Erdahl - Retired Lutheran Bishop
•Mike Perkins, local member of Military Families Speak Out
•Polly Mann - Co-Founder, Women Against Military Madness (Wasn't she darling in her sash?)
•Close and Call to Action -- State Rep. Keith Ellison :woohoo: Keith never disappoints

I'm amazed we got through 17 speakers in just under 1-1/2 hours!

It was moving when Tamara Rosenlef, representing the spirit of Camp Casey, presented the boots from a soldier and the cross to the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, in care of Minnesota Veterans for Peace. John Varone, VFP president, choked up when he accepted them and said: "These are my brothers and sisters. Bring them home!"

Media turnout was good: Star Tribune, Pioneer Press, KARE11, KSTP5, MPR, and a few others. It will be interesting to see what they do with it.

I saw two counterprotestrs huddled around a lone Bush sign. Ha! I know there were more but they weren't making much of an impression.

[bvar22]

2. Some pics to go with your text!

The Democratic Party is a BIG TENT, but there is NO ROOM for those who advance the agenda of THE RICH (Corporate Owners) at the EXPENSE of LABOR and the POOR.

[katinmn]

3. Thanks! Extra cool shot of dpbrown - Mr. Blue!

How did you do that?

[dpbrown]

5. I feel like a Pleasantville resident trying to wake up my neighbors

Cool shot!

[bvar22]

8. The magic of CorelDraw!

It's not difficult or time consuming. In the right picture, it can be a great effect.
I liked the Mr Blue picture too.
Just having fun.

[[e-mail]]

10. I went

I am the one in the purple shirt :)
I am going to make copies of the flyers for the Sept. 24 Rally in St.Paul and the

Minnesota Coalition to Aid Hurricane Katrina Survivors
http://mncahs.org/

Mission from Minnesota
http://www.missionfromminnesota.org/


and put them up...this week as I am off work

[katinmn]

11. Good going, global!

Glad bvar got you in one of the photos. Did you know each other or was it just luck?

:hi:

[dpbrown]

4. Great to see you!

A few hundred people was a good turnout, with the State Fair, the Hurricane, and the rain on peoples' minds.

[katinmn]

6. I agree. We had our one and only planning meeting on Wed.

and we had to get ready to host the people on the bus who arrived Friday. Not much time to get the word out.

Peace groups are really starting to work collaboratively with others (such as labor) and they are seeing the benefits of more outreach to newcomers.

[bvar22]

7. It was difficult walking by the empty boots and crosses and

pictures. I felt somber, like at a funeral. I really didn't want to clap
and cheer at the speeches. I think most felt tha same as I did.

It was good to see you, and I regretted leaving early because of the rain.
Time to start planning our next meet up.

[katinmn]

9. Star Tribune says 350

http://www.startribune.com/stories/587/5595571.html
350 join anti-war bus tour at state capitol
Robert Franklin, Star Tribune
September 4, 2005 RALLY0904




The Cindy Sheehan anti-war bus tour came to Minnesota's state capitol Saturday, and about 350 people showed up to hear speakers call the conflict illegal, unnecessary and a diversion of troops that could be rescuing flood victims.

Speakers included anti-war activisits from as far away as Pennsylvania and Washington state who had been at the camp outside President Bush's home near Crawford, Texas, by Sheehan, whose son was killed in Iraq. It included locals who had been there, including state Sen. Becky Lourey, DFL-Kerrick, and Coleen Rowley, the former FBI agent who is running as a Democrat for Congress in the 2nd District.

Others included retired Lutheran Bishop Lowell Erdahl, who called the war "immoral, illegal, irrational"; Dave Foster, district director of the United Steelworkers of America; state Rep. Keith Ellison, DFL-Minneapolis, and longtime anti-war activist Polly Mann.

"People are dying in Lousiana and New Orleans right now" because of mis-allocation of resources, Ellison said.

- a little more -