The Kalamazoo Chapter of World Can’t Wait had a very lively and successful State of the Emergency Concert and Political Drown Out at a local café that was attended by over 100 people.
Four local bands performed throughout the evening in 20-minute sets. The quality of the music was superb, ranging from folk to blues to indie-influenced. Two of the bands were local college bands with ties to some of the student organizers. The night began with a solo performance that set the mood for the evening.
Then we showed a clip from the World Can’t Wait video of November 2 rallies and marches. The event was emceed by a professional disc jockey who was master of ceremonies who is a main organizer for world cant wait and he very skillfully and enthusiastically hosted the evening. He set the stage politically by talking about the importance of this night and how we must drown out Bush. He frequently told the crowd about the Feb 4 March on the White House, how to sign up and buy tickets and then directed people to our information table where organizers gave out over 30 organizer packets with everything needed to become an organizer. We sold stickers, bus tickets, yard signs, and T-shirts that one of our organizers created.
Next, six activists did a dramatic reading of the Call onstage, a powerful presentation to a captivated audience.
We had a video projector that streamed Bush’s entry into the Congressional chambers, his glad-handing and as he began to speak, every person brought in the noise with kazoos and whistles! They whooped and hollered for several minutes, then booed and chanted for Bush to step down.
A student organizer also created a very anti-Bush, anti-war PowerPoint slide show that was projected onto the screen during the evening, as well as the list of prominent endorsers and our local contact info.
The keynote speaker, a main organizer of the local chapter, began to give an alternative State of the Union speech. She read part of the message from the national office, then exposed Bush’s crimes by using examples of his criminal policies in the Iraqi war, secret arrests and detentions, attacks on Medicaid and his abstinence only policies that kill, global warming, Katrina victims and his reversal of the social programs that were won in the 60’s.
She talked about the seriousness of the situation and what we are up against, but also how the power of the people can defeat his program through a mass movement that quickly mobilizes to stop him. She led the people to chant and they got very excited and made lots of noise, the audience participation was incredible.
The next speaker was a progressive local pastor and longtime anti-war activist who actually when to the same college as George W. He spoke of how important the 60’s student movement was in changing the direction of society and talked about how cynical the Bush administration is in protecting Americans against terrorism when they actually may have allowed 9/11 to occur.
The crowd was very mixed, with about 15 high school students, 25-30 college students, some thirty-something folks, many middle aged and some older people. And in various ways, we raised hundreds of dollars that will be used to send folks to D.C.
There was an atmosphere of intense excitement, determination to defeat the Bush regime, and enthusiasm for this movement. The level of unity was very high among the people and everyone seemed to have fun.
The cafe owners created a special State of the Onion menu for the evening featuring Pork Barrel Chili, “a tribute to Jack Abramhoff and his pork barrel cronies”, the Big Dick (Cheney), an “8 inch wonder” sub, and the Chicago Dog, the “classic wiener honoring all those who got the shit kicked out of them at the 1968 Chicago Democratic Convention!” The cafe owners went out on a limb to host us and reportedly lost some Republican customers.
People were urged to get on the bus, sponsor others to protest, take organizer packets, yard signs, etc. and step up and become organizers. Twenty-one new people signed up for our mailing list. Our group of about a dozen organizers worked very hard to get the word out, raise money and sign people up for D.C. Six new people signed up for D.C., bringing our current total to 22.
We raised hundreds of dollars to come to D.C. The World Can’t Wait!!
Kalamazoo, MI Chapter of WorldCantWait.ORG