7/29/2000 Report on Wednesday's Rally

"...I'm gettin' tired of seein' you people on the front page..."

--a caller to CUADP's toll free number, published yesterday in Teere Haute, IN
(See below)


Greetings all!

Despite the rain, almost 100 people turned out for a two-hour event in front of the White House on Wednesday for the "Rally for a Federal Moratorium."  No media coverage, however, but DC has demonstrations by the dozen, so media coverage is not always to be expected.  Otherwise, despite the rain, it was a good event.

Solidarity events were held in Terre Haute and Indianapolis.  Below is an accounting from the folks in Terre Haute.  The above quote is from someone who got our number off the front page of his newspaper!  He also said he is "for the death penalty."  And he is right!  It's hard to open the newspaper or a magazine these days without seeing coverage of our issue.  It's very good to be reaching those folks, and I am also happy that CUADP is able to run interference for the folks who use our number on their banners - we weed out the angry and nasty callers (challenging them when we answer the call in person) and we send on the friendly callers to the group in their area.  Everybody is happy!

And now, back to my vacation.

paz!

--abe



Greetings dear friends,

Just curious as to how things went in various places today.

Here in Terre Haute, we had nine people standing for an hour in the broiling sun in front of the Federal Building.

 Our brand-new giant-sized all-weather banner (ordered through Abe, it says STOP STATE KILLING in white on black with a big red stop sign ) arrived in the nick of time yesterday, and though we had no supports but human hands, it made a grand debut for the lunchtime traffic. I expect to see it make its first appearance in tomorrow's paper, as we had a photographer and reporter on the scene. 

The reporter spent a long time asking questions, talked to nearly everyone, and has just called me twice for further information.  I am hoping this means a more lengthy story than I expected. The photographer took lots of pictures, including some standing right behind me.  I couldn't figure out what he was doing until I remembered that I was wearing the t-shirt with Amnesty logo and the list of reasons to oppose the dp.  That would definitely make a good message picture and I hope it makes it into the paper at some point.

I believe this was an occasion of significance here in Terre Haute, despite the small number of demonstrators. (I desperately wanted there to be at least six, was allowing myself to hope for a dozen, so nine seemed wonderful to me.) I think this is the first demonstration in the city strictly against the death penalty other than one that the Sisters of Providence held at the prison after the killing chamber was built.

Anyway, it was significant for me because I feel like it marks the real beginning of anti-death penalty action here.

As for public response, there was very little loudly negative stuff (one "fry 'em all" and a couple of unintelligible shouts) and more positive horn honking, thumbs up, and friendly waving.  A significant number of people, though, seemed to just grip their steering wheels more tightly and concentrate very hard on the road in front of them.

One of the postal clerks whom I see nearly every other day as I ship off the books I sell came out to see what was going on.  A Vietnam vet with big eagle tattoo, he smiled genially, said hello, and remarked, " America is certainly a great country, isn't it, where y'all can do this." 

And, not just because I want my books to get safely to their buyers, I agreed with him.

Looking forward to hearing how the demonstrations went in Indy and Washington....

Peace and justice,
Suzanne


[abe's note:  This event was well covered, including a front page
photo in the local newspaper!  Congratulations!]

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