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ROP Fall 2005 Newsletter

From Roseburg to DC: Taking it to the Streets

Rural and small town activists in Oregon didn’t quietly go back to their homes after the Walk for Truth, Justice, and Community this past June.  We stepped up, we continued to take action, and we’ve taken our movement for peace and justice to the next level.  From Klamath County to St. Helens, from San Francisco to DC, the ROP community joined with neighbors, friends, and allies on Sept. 24^th to demonstrate the strength of the anti-war movement in rural Oregon.  Twenty-five communities around the state took advantage of the National Day of Action to creatively take to the streets in protest of the war in Iraq.  And most of these were in small towns!  In Wasco and Hood River Counties protesters took to bridges and held up signs to passing cars.  In La Grande, community members and students from Eastern Oregon University joined together to rally for peace.  In Coos Bay activists organized a public speak out.  Almost 500 people, including the ROP Board, visited the peace event in Albany sponsored by Military Families Speak Out.  Hundreds others traveled out of state to Seattle, San Francisco and DC.

Activists in Douglas County modeled our increased ability to be in many places at once, holding a local event while also sending a delegation to DC to participate in national events.  Here are some of their reflections:

“Do not believe what you did not see, clearly according to the news media, nothing was happening in DC last weekend.  Well I'm here to tell you, we were well over three hundred thousand strong. It was a beautiful sight to see the diversity of the huge crowd. We represented every face of america, this really is what democracy looks like. We proudly marched with the ROP banner and got photographed a ton and got asked lots of questions about ROP and about, could there ever be ROP in other states. Don't be too surprised if that banner doesn't show up soon in some of the alternative press. And don't be surprised if you get phone calls asking what ROP is all about.  From what we could count, there were about 100 to 125 Oregonians in DC,” wrote Dancer Davis.

On the home front Michael Fisher of Douglas County reflected,

“This last Saturday (Sept. 24) was, I feel, a turning point in the effort to end the war in Iraq.  There were about 50 people that marched from the Veterans Cemetery on Harvard to the pavilion on Stewart Parkway, where we had two sound systems set up to make speeches and provide entertainment. There were all kinds of people gathered to march and protest.  Some were families with kids, some had dogs on leashes, some walked, some rolled along in wheelchairs, and some who couldn't walk that far comfortably waited at the pavilion for the marchers to arrive. The cars that passed the marchers predominantly honked and waved peace signs in approval.  As the marchers settled in to listen to the speakers and the drummers, I noticed that they were caught up in the mood of optimism and refused to leave until after the two teenage girls sang the "Star Spangled Banner" and the mics were turned off.  They lingered to talk among themselves about the program and their thoughts about the hopes for the peace movement that even then was flowering in Washington D.C. with over 100,000 people doing the same thing we were doing in Roseburg!”

A highlight for 14 year old River Donaghey (ROP Walker and future Board member) was choosing to get arrested making his point in DC at the Capital with another 375 people.

As public sentiment is shifting about the War in Iraq, small town Oregon stays on the record with a clear message.  We demand an end to the war now!  The neo-conservative agenda that took us into Iraq is not in our name.  And we rural Oregonians are willing to stay in the streets and take it to our neighbors to demand an immediate withdrawal from Iraq.  For support in planning your group’s next steps in the anti-war movement contact ROP.