Untitled Document

LETTERS

Peace, by the numbers
Go to letter

Focus on musicians misses panhandling ordinance’s true threat

Editors, Asheville Global Report,

Re: last two letters on Asheville’s new panhandling ordinance.

The “save the musicians!” debate is tired, irrelevant, and distracting from the real issues behind this ordinance. Rest assured everyone- the musicians are safe. This measure was taken with social cleansing in mind. It is not and never was aimed at our street musicians. True, they technically violate the letter of the law by playing for money, implicitly or directly, permitted or not. But the fact is one would be hard pressed to find any one of us who has not committed a misdemeanor based on the restrictions outlined by this legislation.

Who hasn’t “loitered, loafed, wandered, stood or remained idle (!) either alone or in consort with others”(sect. 11-8(b)) within the area specified as off-limits for such activity? Can you honestly claim to never have asked a friend to spot you for a cup of coffee, promising to repay later? Fess up, you have probably been in someone’s way as they were attempting to enter a business, preventing “the free and uninterrupted ingress, egress and regress, therein, thereon, and thereto”(sect. 11-8(b)(2)). Some of you may have even slipped into dreamland on a sunny afternoon in the park. All of those acts (or non-acts) are unlawful now.

Hundreds, maybe thousands violate this ordinance every day as the police look on.

Meanwhile, as folks wrangle over the future of busking, people have already begun to disappear from our streets. These people do not sing and dance; they do not entertain us for a quarter and the privilege to exist. Instead they alarm and disgust us. Remember Joe Dunn’s infamous “unusual people” remark? He and the other six Councilors clarified the term the Tuesday they passed this ordinance. They made it plain that the unusual people without beds, roofs, or toilets of their own must be banished from sight. With them will go the peculiar who are saturated with poisons- drugs, alcohol, Gulf War Syndrome. All of the oddities who survive on our scraps and “chump change” because Labor Ready consistently leaves them unable to afford the luxurious leap to food and a home should prepare for exile, jail and humiliation because they do not enhance the view.

When City Council unanimously voted the ordinance through, several prefaced their contribution to this officially legislated fascism by stating that they didn’t want the street performers, girl scouts or Salvation Army to experience any harassment. Though constitutionally the wording of the ordinance could not be changed to apply to a specific demographic, council was assured that social cleansing would be applied with discretion, as enforcement of the law would be selective. Seeing no problem with this guarantee, they OK’d the document, relieved of the burden and responsibility of unfair profiling.

As a result, we have yet greater police autonomy in the city, but less accountability. We have an entire segment of the population, at least 700 by conservative estimate, who do not have the means to abide by the law, since their very existence has been essentially declared illegal. We also have a big, stupid debate about street musicians. I love the street musicians too, but it ain’t about them, y’all! Put your anger where it matters.

Allie Morris,

Asheville, North Carolina

El Eco moves on

Editors, Asheville Global Report,

This is a letter of gratitude and support for your great efforts.

The editors of El Eco de las Montañas would like to extend our sincere thanks for all the assistance, space, and encouragement you have provided us for the past few years.

As many know, in 2000 El Eco editors started out participating in AGR’s Spanish-section. We were so inspired by your operation — a collective process, a community orientation, and a volunteer spirit — that we copied it when we became independent. Truly, AGR has something special and merits replication!

El Eco is proud to be growing by leaps and bounds, thanks to the help of AGR, El Eco Editors, The Community Foundation of WNC, The Fund for Southern Communities, The Dandelion Fund, Jubilee, Asheville Friends Meeting, advertisers, and most importantly the readers themselves.

This month we are moving to our very own office — another great leap for us. We are in need of office supplies, a photocopier, computer equipment, and monetary donations, all tax-deductible. Please contact us at eleco@ncpress.net with any information you may have.

It is with joy and sorrow that we leave the folds of the old AGR office, but we look forward to an even broader relationship in the future!

Sincerely,

The Editors

El Eco de las Montañas

Peace, by the numbers

Editors, Asheville Global Report,

Adding to efforts to try to re-direct the “…guided missiles and misguided men...” described by Martin Luther King Jr., 285 citizens of western North Carolina joined over 2000 other North Carolinians in Washington, DC to march for peace on Saturday, January 18, 2003. Combined with what I estimated to be 300-400,000 other citizen marchers, the outcry to our president for peace is increasing in volume.

While I applaud the Asheville Citizen-Times’ courage for continuing to publish articles relating to peace in times that encourage us to war, I get a slightly sinking feeling that the estimate of the numbers of marchers in the Sunday, Jan. 19 Associated Press article by Calvin Woodward on page A4, is of a “cookie-cutter” nature.

Why are the numbers so important? If folks who want a war with Iraq can paint a picture of a low level interest in peace, marketing a war will be easier. If, however, each Peace March swells with an ever increasing number of people speaking out for peace, our leadership in Washington might actually have to listen to us.

The president happened to be out of town at Camp David for both the October and the January Peace Marches, so he missed an impressive, first hand opportunity to look at the growing masses of his constituents peacefully asking him to reconsider his current stance on a war with Iraq. If his aides report that the same number of marchers for peace showed up in October and January, and that they came in small numbers, his plan to go to war is facilitated. If he gets a report that numbers of citizens double every time we come out to ask for peace, perhaps our efforts will help re-direct what we think are “misguided men” trying to take us to war.

Let’s look at the importance of the numbers of peace marchers.

The first mainstream newspaper articles to cover a Washington, DC Peace March during the Gulf War stated that “about 30,000” folks marched on the capitol. Initial Associated Press articles covering the Washington, DC Peace Rally on Oct. 26 last year reported “about 30,000” marchers.

Woodward quotes Washington, DC police as saying that, “about 30,000” people marched during the Saturday, Jan. 18, 2003 March for Peace in our nation’s capitol.

Where did these estimates come from? I don’t know. [...]

It turned out that the Gulf War Peace March was finally tallied at closer to 70,000 participants.

The October, 2002 Peace Rally was finally estimated between 100-200,000 citizens...

My estimate for the number of Peace Marchers on Saturday, Jan. 18 is 300-400,000, and here are my reasons:

I walked for peace in all three of the marches mentioned in this article.

In each consecutive rally there was less space between me and people around me, and the pace of the walk appeared to me to be slower as each march started out. [...]

Add to my observation that North Carolina organizers for bus transportation from Asheville, Chapel Hill, and Durham to Washington, DC all stated that 2-3 times as many buses were chartered for the January trip when compared to last year’s October march for peace. Several other similar estimates were passed on to me by bus transportation organizers from Minnesota and Mississippi as well.

Comparing the October, 2002 and January, 2003 marches, and applying these very crude (but better than nothing) estimates, that would put us at 200,000 at the low end, and 600,000 participants at the top end for the January rally. Let’s say 400,000 to stay in the middle. Then, just to tone it down bit, let’s say there were between 300-400,000 marchers.

Along with the increasing number of people, the Jan. 18 Peace Rally continued to reflect the incredible ethnic, economic, and age diversity represented in the October march. Adding to the diversity in the January march were the ‘Raging Grannies’ from Rochester, New York, more groups of Veterans for Peace, a representative of the British Parliament assuring us that the majority of the British population is against a US war with Iraq, Teachers for Peace, Union Workers for Peace, and a large variety of ethnic contingents all united in peaceful intent to stop a US war with Iraq.

[...] The current widespread, unified and vocal response against a war with Iraq is unprecedented in US history… and growing. We are witnessing a peace revolution, first hand.

[...] Believe me, no matter what we hear or read to the contrary, the number of people asking for peace is significant and growing. I invite you to join us.

Tim Pluta

Mars Hill, North Carolina