Blog written by Medea
Photos & video clips by Lori
Editing by Midge
(We work together to get you our action reports)
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We had an absolutely wonderful CODEPINK Mothers Day today. It started out, CODEPINK style, with an action. This time our target was a military exhibit at the National Mall. We had a 9am meeting about the action, and decided to have two teams—one “overt” CODEPINK group would set up a memorial for the fallen soldiers right outside the exhibit. The other, the covert team, would go inside and stage a takeover of some military equipment.
We arrived at about 11am and scoped out the exhibit. It was heartbreaking to see, especially on Mothers Day, this glorification of the military. Young children were encouraged to play with guns and get their faces painted in camouflage. They were even giving out toy grenades for the children to play with.
In the outdoor exhibit, they had Apache helicopters, Light-Armored Vehicles, remote-controlled vehicles, simulated bombs, underwater vehicles. We picked a nice dark green tank for our target, and then, at an appointed hour, descended upon it. We scrambled up the fr
ont of the tank, unfurled our banners and started putting flowers in the 50-caliber machine gun mounted atop the tank.
Soldiers, followed by the Park Police, immediately jumped on the tank, grabbed our banners, and told us to get down. We didn’t. We kept them dancing around the tank as we ran from front to back over and over again, shouting “Mothers Say No to War!” The CODEPINK women on the ground threw us fresh banners and pink material to drape across the tank.
Before the police could arrest us, though, we jumped off the tank and ran to “take over” another one. After h
olding that tank for awhile, we scampered down and started marching around the outdoor exhibit, singing—in military cadence—1,2,3,4, Mothers Say No to War.; 5,6,7, 8 Teach Our Children Not to Hate. After being threatened many times with arrest, we finally marched outside. We were saddened by the use of our taxdollars for war, and worse yet, by the way our children are being taught from a tender ago that war is fun. But we were delighted that we had been able to carry a strong message into the exhibit, and not get arrested!
Photos & video clips by Lori
Editing by Midge
(We work together to get you our action reports)
--------------------------------------------------
We had an absolutely wonderful CODEPINK Mothers Day today. It started out, CODEPINK style, with an action. This time our target was a military exhibit at the National Mall. We had a 9am meeting about the action, and decided to have two teams—one “overt” CODEPINK group would set up a memorial for the fallen soldiers right outside the exhibit. The other, the covert team, would go inside and stage a takeover of some military equipment.
We arrived at about 11am and scoped out the exhibit. It was heartbreaking to see, especially on Mothers Day, this glorification of the military. Young children were encouraged to play with guns and get their faces painted in camouflage. They were even giving out toy grenades for the children to play with.In the outdoor exhibit, they had Apache helicopters, Light-Armored Vehicles, remote-controlled vehicles, simulated bombs, underwater vehicles. We picked a nice dark green tank for our target, and then, at an appointed hour, descended upon it. We scrambled up the fr
ont of the tank, unfurled our banners and started putting flowers in the 50-caliber machine gun mounted atop the tank.Soldiers, followed by the Park Police, immediately jumped on the tank, grabbed our banners, and told us to get down. We didn’t. We kept them dancing around the tank as we ran from front to back over and over again, shouting “Mothers Say No to War!” The CODEPINK women on the ground threw us fresh banners and pink material to drape across the tank.
Before the police could arrest us, though, we jumped off the tank and ran to “take over” another one. After h
olding that tank for awhile, we scampered down and started marching around the outdoor exhibit, singing—in military cadence—1,2,3,4, Mothers Say No to War.; 5,6,7, 8 Teach Our Children Not to Hate. After being threatened many times with arrest, we finally marched outside. We were saddened by the use of our taxdollars for war, and worse yet, by the way our children are being taught from a tender ago that war is fun. But we were delighted that we had been able to carry a strong message into the exhibit, and not get arrested!
1 comment:
Ladies,
What a wonderful page to surf in on! It's about time a group took more aggressive steps toward showing the armed forces that promoting a military agenda to our CHILDREN is disgraceful and shocking! I wish more citizens would take a stand as you ladies have. MANY KUDOS!! I believe this is one of the GREATEST direct action events I have seen after browsing your site. Thank you for your positive contribution! POST MORE PICTURES OF THIS EVENT! Your efforts are greatly appreciated! MANY THANKS!
Sincerely,
Leslie (This is my first exposure to your site and your organization)
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