The Book Project Turns Pink

The Campus Community Book Project was launched a week ago and so far the response has been great. The wide variety of programs ranging from talks, lectures, and workshops to martial arts demonstrations, a peace picnic, and a performance of Lysistrata means that there’s something for everyone. The visit by the author of Gandhi’s Way, Mark Juergensmeyer, last week was a great success.

Tonight we heard Medea Benjamin, Green Party candidate for Senate in 2000 and one of the founders of Code Pink, explain how U.S. policies have been a disaster in Afghanistan and Iraq and how social movements are, in her view, the way to change the world (as opposed merely to the electoral process). Her three visits to Iraq this year and her conversations with people who are having to live through the results of the occupation give her an authority that radiates through her vibrant energy.

The peace movement is demoralized, almost defeated. Today, I felt I got some batteries recharged. It is important to keep going, not to let fatigue and hopelessness stop us. Benjamin sees a lot more than I do to demoralize her, but I have rarely seen so much energy in one person.

We wore pink. Arnold’s going to get a pink delegation on the eve of his inauguration in November. Being silly is a good way for me to stay engaged; it’s certainly more fun than the alternatives.