D.C. Statehood Greens Collecting “Shoes for Bush”
TRAVELING TO D.C. FOR OBAMA’S INAGURATION? PLEASE TAKE SHOES WITH YOU!
The D.C. Statehood Greens are participating in the Shoes for Bush event being held in tandem with the inaguration of Obama.
I received this in my email box recently:
www.shoebush.org
JOIN US IN WASHINGTON,DC
January,19th
SHOES FOR BUSH action “For the widows, the orphans, and those killed in Iraq.”
send me your old shoes to take to DC. ALL SHOES DONATED to the needy in the DC/Baltimore area and distributed by the DC Greens
On January 20th,tens of thousands of people will be gathering to celebrate the Inaugural of President Barrack Obama.It will be a historical marker and a joyous and celebratory occasion. However, the promise of change, does not mean that we can shut the door, on the past eight horrific years of the Bush administration and wipe clean the images of shear terror, torture and suffering on the faces innocent Iraqis who have faced death and total destruction of their country. Also, it will not be easy for our own families, like Melida and Carlos Arredondo who have lost their child to an unjust and immoral war. Americans of conscience are grieving for our children and for those in Iraq. To watch president Bush leave office, unaccountable is like rubbing salt into a wound.
On Monday, January 19th at 11:00 people will be converging at a permitted site near the White House for what may be a cathartic action of hurling a shoe at an image of President Bush. In the spirit of Mutadhar Al-Zaidi and in solidarity with the people of Iraq, we invite you to join us.
If you are will be in town for the Inaugural, bring an extra pair of shoes with you! If you cannot be there with us you can send us your shoes and we will take them to DC in a U-Haul. No Bomb-sniffing dogs at our post office! Unfortunately if you send shoes to the White House they are taken to a remote location and the gesture will be for not.
We are designating a page on this web site to post the names of people who are collecting shoes in your area. These people will deliver the shoes to collection points where those who will be traveling to DC, by car, will pick bring them up.
Please consider writing notes and putting them in your shoes. We will read them at the SHOES FOR BUSH event where documentary film maker Scott Hamann will be recording this historic mass action. Artists are invited to be creative if they choose to create a work of art work with their shoes.
ALL SHOES WILL BE DONATED TO THE NEEDY IN THE WASHINGTON/BALTIMORE AREA. A few will be saved for posterity and perhaps we should donate those to the Bush Library.
My appreciation goes out David Swanson for his literary contribution and support as well as to Andrew Lehman, Marcia Bernstein and Dana Simpson for their contribution of web site creation, The Washington Peace Center, the DC Statehood Green Party and my activist friends and organizations in DC who are supporting this mass action.
Jamilla El-Shafei
organizer@shoebush.org
This actions seems cool and profound. Kudos.
But, will it take away some of the angst that should be pointed towards the War in Afghanistan?
Shouldn’t some shoes (hurled non-violently against an effigy or symbol only) be hurled at President-Elect Barack Obama, if he chooses to continue the War in Iraq, and surge in the War in Afghanistan as he has promised?
Why as a political party do we need to concern ourselves with Bush? Bush is going. Our next “opponent” is Obama and the Democrats, and the new Republicans who will come along…
Bush is a war criminal and should be tried and convicted of his crimes. We as a party should not let go of this. Bush may not be a physical presence in the White House after January 20, 2009, but what he and his regime have done to the world have affected the planet forever.
I do suppose that the party should try to demand that Bush be tried for war crimes. But, I do not think it should be a main focus of an electoral party. And, it should probably not be the main focus at Barack Obama’s inauguration.
Since the main reason and organization of the GP-US and its affiliates is electoral, it seems silly to focus on Bush at the inauguration, instead of Obama, who we will be running against next time and/or Congress who we will be running against in two years.
Seems like a gift to Obama to distract people who hate war to spend their time at Obama’s installation, throwing symbolic shoes at someone else.
Who will carry the signs that say, “Obama: Get out of Afghanistan” or “Obama, repect gay marriage”?
I agree wholeheartedly that all Green protesters should be focused on Obama. After Jan. 20th, Obama is going to be the commander in chief, and he’s the one we have to put major pressure on if we are SERIOUS about ending these wars.
I agree with the above commenters that say Obama should be the focus of the protests. Protesting Bush during his last days in office seems like a waste of time.
Oh. I realized that at least the anti-Bush shoe throw is the day before the actual inauguration. So, at least it won’t directly pull people from an Obama protest on the big day.
If I understand, Monday, Jan 19th is the shoe-throw event. And, Tuesday, January 20th is the inauguration.
Still think people should either stay away from the inauguration or go and make some protest or appeal to Obama on some of the many issues he is bad on…
“Bush is a war criminal and should be tried and convicted of his crimes. We as a party should not let go of this.”
I would agree completely if the Greens were taking the White House. We could hold a full investigation of the War of Terror, and by the end of it the public would be all too ready for Bush to be extradited to the International Court of Justice. However, that is not the case, and I don’t think anything we do at this point will convince Obama to prosecute Bush – got to reach out to those right-wing evangelicals, you know. S0 at this point our priority should be pressuring Obama, and planting a seed in the minds of progressives at the inauguration… so that when Obama disappoints, they’ll remember who had it right all along.
Advance apologies for a slightly off-topic rant…
I just saw this from Time: “Environmentalists have so far been ecstatic over President-elect Barack Obama’s Cabinet picks, with some even calling it the green dream team… [But his pick of] Ken Salazar as his new Secretary of the Interior… could represent Obama’s first conflict with the environmental community.” (Interestingly, the “some” who are “calling it the green dream team” is the same columnist for Time who wrote this article, Bryan Walsh. But that’s not too surprising, as some say that Time magazine is glossy, brightly colored toilet paper.)
A few days ago, I read an article where a prominent gay rights advocate called the selection of Rick Warren to lead Obama’s inauguration Obama’s first big mistake. Moreover, I saw this story about Ken Salazar right next to an article about how disappointed environmentalists are with Tom Vilsack as Ag Secretary. As for why environmentalists are supposedly ecstatic about Obama’s cabinet, it basically comes down to this: the pick for Secretary of Energy is a scientist. Our expectations have been lowered to the point where that is supposed to make us ecstatic.
Point is, the reaction to every individual cabinet appointment, save perhaps Steven Chu, has been somewhere between disappointment (Jackson as EPA head) and outrage (Clinton-Jones-Gates as national security team, who Dick Cheney called “a pretty good team”). Yet the community of liberal email-writers frames this as “Dear Mr. President – we’ve been ecstatic so far with your cabinet picks, since none of them were directly responsible in the past for the outrages that I’ve written so many issue-oriented emails about! However, with the selection of the cabinet member dealing with the thing that I give a damn about, I’m concerned that my dreams of change and hope are getting the shaft. Please, O, say it ain’t so!”
I think one of the great things about being Green is that I will not throw other issues under the bus just to suck up to politicians in the hope that they’ll maybe, just maybe consider my opinion. I don’t have to pretend that Biden, Emanuel, Clinton, Jones, Gates, Vilsack, Salazar, Jackson, Duncan, Napolitano, Geithner, Summers, and Rick Warren are okay, because they’re not.
I want a government committed to peace, justice, democracy and sustainability, and that’s why every one of those picks felt like a slap in the face. Or would have, had I been one of the millions who believed that Obama would bring real change.
“S0 at this point our priority should be pressuring Obama, and planting a seed in the minds of progressives at the inauguration… so that when Obama disappoints, they’ll remember who had it right all along.”
I totally agree with always keeping the pressure on Obama or whoever is in this office – and I for one do not intend to let up on this in my work for peace and justice (sorry if it seemed otherwise, which is not my intent at all). I do feel, however, that we should *not* let go of Bush, whatever that takes. To me, that is a crime in itself and I will do what I can to provide support and advocacy for convicting this war criminal of the crimes he has committed. My state party has an entire page and set of documents that one of our members spent his sabbatical doing as his research project (poli sci professor). The page is being updated but when it’s ready again, I’ll post it.
1. ShoeBush.org says that after the demonstration the shoes will be donated to those who are in need due to the disastrous Bush economic policies. Unfortunately the site also urges people to “bring your stinky old shoes and join us!”
I’ve emailed them about this, but it sounds like some footwear will need reconditioning before it can be distributed to neighbors in need. How about contacting John Matthews at the Peter Bug Shoe Repair Academy to see if his kids might spruce up some of the more experienced footgear?
2. I’ve posted about the event at
http://notionscapital.wordpress.com/2008/12/23/shoe-salute-for-bush-on-january-19th/
Please let me know if the post needs updating or corrections.
“I totally agree with always keeping the pressure on Obama or whoever is in this office – and I for one do not intend to let up on this in my work for peace and justice (sorry if it seemed otherwise, which is not my intent at all). I do feel, however, that we should *not* let go of Bush, whatever that takes. To me, that is a crime in itself and I will do what I can to provide support and advocacy for convicting this war criminal of the crimes he has committed. My state party has an entire page and set of documents that one of our members spent his sabbatical doing as his research project (poli sci professor). The page is being updated but when it’s ready again, I’ll post it.”
i cant wait to see
Although the Peace Center is mentioned, it has not endorsed this action.
It seems the prosecution of Bush is inevitable, he authorized torture and by all standards that is a crime.