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The people’s message in DC: no war
Editors, Asheville Global Report,
This past weekend, two busloads of diverse citizens from Asheville,
NC and surrounding areas rode up to Washington, DC to participate
in the largest demonstration of solidarity against war since
1967.
The demonstrations against the Vietnam war started approximately
5 years after US involvement began, and about 2 years after
US troops were sent over. The October 26th, 2002 demonstration
against a war with Iraq occurred before an “official”
war has even been declared.
Public pressure from a growing number of people in the US is
quickly growing and coalescing in an attempt to counter the
presidential push to go to war. this is not pressure from a
small, vocal, unknown group of rabble-rousers. Race diversity,
age diversity, philosophical and political diversity and economic
diversity were all united and represented in Washington this
past week, all asking for peace.
On one of our buses alone, I recall ages ranging from 13 to
76 years old.
Psychiatry, reporting, music, factory work, education, students,
massage therapy, military, counseling, medicine, retirement,
consulting, electronics, computers, writing, and countless other
life endeavors were represented... all committed to delivering
a request for peace. We are the people asking for peace. We
joined other people asking what will happen to our request for
peace.
As the beginning ranks of marchers were finishing the lap around
the White House, the ranks near the end were just beginning
to march. A literal ring of people united and asking for peace
was formed around the white house. A peaceful ring. A well-behaved,
calm group of citizens with a message for the president -- we
do not want to go to war with Iraq.
I heard two separate reports that 3 people were arrested in
the protest.
Quite a good demonstration of peaceful intent by a large group
of people asking for the same.
We exchanged smiles with the west point graduates for peace,
listened to songs from Latinos for peace, enjoyed the colored
feathers of gays and lesbians for peace, walked side by side
with Palestinians for peace, shared delivering the message with
African Americans for peace, cried out for peace with veterans,
and tried in the best way we could to live up to Ghandi’s
urging to “become the change we desire to see.”
It was a beautiful, moving event.
Mother Theresa once stated that “we can do no great things,
but we can do small things with great love.” Somewhere
in the neighborhood of a quarter of a million people left their
homes, spent their hard earned dollars, walked, drove, rode
and made their way to the symbolic center of our democracy to
do a small thing with great love. To ask for peace.
This one event, built from small acts of great love, is a great
thing. It is from us. It is made of us. It is what we want.
Let us become it.
Peace to us all.
Tim Pluta
Mars Hill, North Carolina
Where’s the local support for AGR?
Editors, Asheville Global Report
I am writing this letter unofficially on behalf of the AGR.
The AGR has been providing the people of Asheville and beyond
with cutting edge news for several years. They have consistently
put out the paper every week without fail. This effort involves
an incredible amount of time and energy. The all-volunteer staff
makes the personal sacrifice of their free time and takes on
the additional stress and demands of what amounts to basically
another full time job. They do this as a labor of love, because
they believe in it and us, yes us, the readers. They do not
put forth all of their hard work as an exercise in futility
or because they are bored insomniacs. They do not distribute
2,000 copies a week because they think it is funny to waste
paper. No, I believe they have other reasons.
I think they believe we want the information they provide.
Maybe they feel the need to provide it to us, maybe they think
we will read the paper, think about it, and do something positive
to change what we do not like about the world. Perhaps they
believe we will support them, perhaps they believe in the Easter
Bunny (because that’s probably what it feels like on that
last one).
What I’m trying to say is that they need some help. The
bulk of the AGR’s distribution is in Asheville and many
of us read it weekly; some geeks, such as myself, even look
forward to it every week. Yet it is beginning to look like a
lot of us including myself take it for granted. During the last
fund drive most of their donations came from out of town (thank
you), and one donation even came from someone in prison, which
is no small gesture. When the AGR asks for money we think, “Hey
I gave ‘em 5 bucks at that benefit three months ago”
or maybe more simply, “I’m broke.” Perchance
you sent in $10. That works out to around 25 cents a paper if
you read it every week. 25 cents. I know times are tough and
you can’t draw blood from a stone, believe me I know.
Some of us might be able to afford a little more cash or a
little more time down at the paper. You could help write a grant,
or do some other task that would free up someone else to spend
that time fundraising. From what I understand they only get
a minimal number of papers back from the boxes each week, and
some places are out of them in a few days. This means they could
actually increase production to maybe 2,200 or even 2,500, if
they had our support. If the AGR disappears we have nobody but
ourselves to blame; they are doing their job, we are not doing
ours. If you truly do not have any time or money just write
them a letter and thank them, or thank them when you see them
on the street. A little thanks and recognition won’t work
for the bill collectors, but it will probably do a lot for their
sanity and sense of perspective.
Finally, I want to be able to read the damn paper every week.
In that regard it has been a purely self-gratifying letter.
Thanks for listening, and thank you AGR.
Dave Markiewicz
Asheville, North Carolina
Zoning causes sprawl
Editors, Asheville Global Report,
Your Oct. 24 article on Smart Growth was informative and generally
constructive, but it misses THE main point especially in terms
of local relevance. The point is that Smart Growth America compares
their proposals to traditional zoning and never has compared
them to no zoning. I may need to be corrected, but I am fairly
certain that all of the sprawling metropolitan areas, mentioned
in the study, have zoning, While Houston, Texas, the largest
US city without zoning, was conspicuously absent from the list
of most sprawling cities. Though to be accurate, even Houston
has zoning in some of it’s suburbs. Gadsden, Alabama, the
US city with the most affordable housing, was also absent from
the list and has little zoning.
The conclusion should be clear. Zoning causes sprawl. The fight
against zoning taking place in outer Buncombe County is a fight
against sprawl, for affordable housing and for the environment,
even if some of its leaders don’t know it.
Alan Ditmore,
Leicester, North Carolina
Buncombe SWCD candidate
Rep. Price voted against Iraq resolution
Editors, Asheville Global Report,
I am writing in response to your front page article on the
protest in the offices of Rep. David Price (D-NC). You did your
readers a disservice when you failed to mention that Rep. Price
voted against the resolution authorizing the use of force against
Iraq. Indeed, the day after the protest Price released a statement
of his intent not to vote for the resolution; he also signed
on as a cosponsor of the Spratt amendment, which would have
enjoined the President to seek a diplomatic solution and would
have required further Congressional authorization for an invasion.
It is of course regrettable that the congressman should have
asked the police to remove the protesters from his office after
twenty-six hours. But it is also unfortunate that these well-intentioned
protesters should have spent so much time occupying the offices
of one of the few in the House to vote against the resolution,
especially when the state offices of John Edwards — a cosponsor
of the resolution in the Senate — were within an hour’s
drive.
Douglas Gibson
Asheville, North Carolina
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