My experience passing out copies of "The WORD on the Street" in Portland today
author: Leafletter
Yesterday there was a post on this site called, "PDF about sElection fraud from portland indymedia stories to PRINT & DISTRIBUTE", at  http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2004/11/302663.shtml. It contained an upload of a newsheet called "The WORD on the STreet" for people to print, copy and pass around. Taking stories from indymedia, it exposes the fraud of the stolen election.
Today I printed one up, took it downtown where a friend of mine let me use the copier in his office, and made over 400 copies. Then I walked around Pioneer Square passing them out. About half the people I approached took one, and of those, about half were really excited. It was easy to offer it to people. "Hey, you want 'The Word on the Street'?" I'd say. That was fun to say.
Anyway, I left a stack of 100 or so at the Red and Black Cafe (22nd & Division) for other people to go get some if they want, to pass out themselves. They're on the white lit table by the computers. Come and get 'em!
|
Pioneer Square was interesting. Some asked, "What's it about?" and I would say, "The election fraud" or something like that. A couple people said, "I've heard enough about that!" or "I don't want to think about it anymore." Others were just like, "Thanks!" Twice I was going to pass them out to the throngs waiting for the Max, but each time I walked up, the train arrived. :( It was the only time I wished public transportation was less efficient in Portland! :)
I talked to one guy for like 10, maybe 15 minutes. He didn't want one because "I already know about all that", but he did want to converse. He said he left the country when Nixon was elected (in 1972) and didn't come back until Carter was president (1976 and after). He said things were bad then, electorally, and that people had trouble believing the system could work, and that it was even worse now. He didn't want to discourage me from passing out the news -- he understood that I wanted to do something, anything -- but he didn't see how it would help because "What can we do anyway?"
There isn't much we can, of course. We can try to help out Bev Harris and Black Box Voting ( http://www.blackboxvoting.org) as she tries to expose the election fraud through in-depth investigation and Freedom of Information Act requests. She's a hard-working activist, and if her work breaks through the corporate media veil, it could make a difference. But honestly, the stolen election is probably just gonna stay stolen. It sucks.
What we can do, though, by educating people about the theft (or about any of the other nasty things about the current system) is get people to the point where they want to dis-associate themselves from it, and live lives that are free of corporate control, and start making meaningful choices that actually give them that. The more that we all "go off the grid", metaphorically and literally, the less resources the system has to survive. We've got to cut off its oxygen down here at the root level, by changing the way we live, and helping others change. I guess that's why I was out there distributing "The WORD on the Street" today; because it exposes lies of the system that are so disgusting that dropping out becomes the only real choice. I want as many people as possible to drop out. That's "seccession", if you ask me, just in slow motion.
Anyway, this is your invitation to go get some copies at the Red and Black and post them around. And of course you can also download the PDF and do it yourself, too. Have fun!!
|
contribute to this article
contribute to this article
add comment to discussion
|
