Summary of Arkansas Visit, July 23-26

The third week of the tour, the World Can’t Wait bus stops in Arkansas, a politically scattered state with an overarching powerful theocratic and Republican presence. The bus should even have a tag line that states, “Driving Out the Bush Regime, Mile after Mile” as the tour spans Fayetteville, Springdale, Eureka Springs, and Little Rock. The World Can’t Wait works hard to break through the ice of people’s accepted ignorance, and to address the dangers of this ignorance to the grand scheme of the rapidly unraveling terrors of the Bush regime such as the killings of Lebanon civilians and torture of small children by soldiers. The goal is to bring this movement to drive out the Bush regime to as many people as possible, many of whom would not have heard of World Can’t Wait otherwise because of the political climate and geographic location.

The bus tour continues with outreach at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. We met many high school students who want to start local World Can’t Wait chapters at schools this fall.  At the Cheney protest in Springdale, we encounter restaurant workers who take signs to put in their windows at home, and a construction worker who comes over during his break curious about this movement.  The most inspirational case, however, is a middle-aged man at the protest who remarked to an organizer after hearing about the bus tour. He truthfully conveys to someone, “Yesterday, I didn’t think I could drive out the Bush regime. Now I do,” after being here at this protest and seeing such cooperation with two dozen other non-violence activists.

A major political theme throughout Arkansas is the rise of a theocracy and the need to resist it.  Like the Call states, “Your Government is moving each day closer to a theocracy where a narrow and hateful brand of christian fundamentalism will rule”.  Arkansas has a museum that teaches the creation story in the Bible as scientific fact.  During our outreach in Eureka Springs, the town where the museum is located, most of the people had no clue this museum existed. The threat of a theocracy is real when monuments to education are being manipulated to promote a Bible story as literal fact and no one knows about it. Yet, if they do, the people of Arkansas don’t do anything about it.

A Museum of Earth History in Eureka Springs falsely teaches that the Biblical story of creation is scientific fact.  Through talking to countless passerbys and shop owners, though, we found out that not even a handful of people knew that such a museum even exists. Regardless, we set up a display about the science of evolution in the Basin Park. While a crowd didn’t form, various informative conversations certainly did, and a certain journalist wrote a very impressive article for his local newspaper about our journey and our goals. God-believing and God-denying people alike openly expressed their religious opinions and political stands. They were very open to learning more about reasons behind driving out the Bush regime, and related many of their personal encounters with the regime as a whole.

Talking to other religious and spiritual, but not fundamentalist, people is enlightening yet frustrating.  It’s refreshing to hold open conversations with open-minded spiritual people; however, these liberally religious people grieve over the world’s sorrows, but do not discuss how to stop injustice and change the future for the better. They don’t understand that the relativist attitude, “You believe what you believe, and I believe what I believe, as long as we don’t impose our beliefs on one another” will only lead to more sorrow.

A perfect example of this negligent relativism is a case during Nazi Germany – the phenomena of just waiting in the face of a threat and hoping things will get better. Pastor Niemoller saw Nazis on the forefront coming toward his church, but felt that he would be fine as long as the Nazis with didn’t mess with him or his church. Surely enough, he was proven wrong: he was captured and sent to a concentration camp. Relativism aside, Arkansas does have energetic and inspired individuals who know better than simply hope and dream; they are excited about World Can’t Wait’s action and are driven to make their local Arkansas location action-oriented and empowering.

One night, the bus was in a department store parking lot when this woman came up and asked what the website, painted on the side, stood for.  When she was told that it was part of a movement to drive out the Bush regime, she screamed in joy, “Thank you! Thank you! I’ve been waiting for this for so long!”.  The next morning on the steps of City Hall in Little Rock, the World Can’t Wait staged a non-traditional marriage between “church” and “state” with George Bush as the minister. The play was short and sweet, with a voice of protest, of course, chanting, “The World Can’t Wait! Ban marriage of church and state!” A few people stood on the streets as a handful of media men captured the moments. A quick question about the movement evolved into an informative and persuasive discussion with a group of curious individuals. The World Can’t Wait is truly intriguing and has a place in Arkansas.

Even in Arkansas, a very red and rural state, there are pockets of resistance.  People in isolated towns and areas need to know that they are not the only ones in their state who despise the Bush regime and should participate in a one-of-a-kind movement that demands, “Bush step down and take your whole program with you!”  People in various regions of Arkansas now know that massive resistance against the Bush regime exists. They now know they can stand up for a new kind of living conditions, and are ready for October 5th when we join nationally to bring this program to a halt.