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Wednesday 08 June 2005
 | Watch Will's speech online! Part 1: QuickTime [ DSL | 56K ] Windows Media [ DSL | 56K ] Part 2: QuickTime [ DSL | 56K ] Windows Media [ DSL | 56K ] Part 3: QuickTime { DSL | 56K ] Windows Media [ DSL | 56K ] |
The only screw-up during the whole journey turned out to be mine. I thought I was being so clever.
It was Friday morning and I was tired; I never sleep well before big trips. I was walking through Logan Airport waiting for my flight to Oakland, contemplating the weekend ahead of me: speech in Berkeley on Friday night, and then to Sacramento on Saturday morning for another speech and a panel discussion, then a flight down to Los Angeles on Saturday night for yet another speech, wake Sunday morning and fly to Santa Rosa for another speech and panel discussion, and then Oakland again for the flight home.
I knew I would need the rest, so I asked the airline people to put me in the exit row, thinking the extra leg-room would be key. The leg-room was nice, but I had forgotten that exit-row seats do not recline back at all. The flight to California saw me bolt upright for several hours, chin banging into chest as I tried to sleep. Lesson learned, I guess.
That was the only glitch, though. The intricate logistical ballet that carried myself, PDA National Field Director Sherry Bohlen, and PDA Political Director Kevin Spidel to four events in three cities in three days across the length of California and back again, plus airport pick-ups, drop-offs, and sleeping arrangements, was arranged and handled flawlessly by California PDA organizers Mervis Reissig, Anna Givens and their crew. Anyone who thinks putting together and holding together a schedule like that is easy should try it sometime.
The PDA trip to California this past weekend was a resounding success from beginning to end. Sherry, Kevin, and I met PDA activists and organizers from one side of the state to the other, and saw to our great joy that the PDA folks in California are well-organized, inspired, and running together at speed. We saw a group of people working hard to build the PDA base, to get our message out. We saw our California activists coming together around a variety of vital issues and pushing them as hard as they can be pushed.
A speech in Berkeley was first, and came off well. The organizing principle behind my message that weekend was the call to get our troops out of Iraq, and to give the Iraqi people their country back; this message was well-received the first night. Discussions went into the night as we gamed out scenarios and plans as to how to get this done, where the political pressure-points are, who our allies are and could be, and what PDA is doing to accomplish all this.
Saturday morning greeted us with bright northern California sunshine and that quality of air you just don't find anywhere else. We piled into the car and headed for Sacramento, where that city's PDA chapter was hosting us as part of its first general members' meeting. The event was remarkable. The Sacramento PDA chapter is led and run by activists who have been dedicating their lives to the progressive movement for years and years. They were, to put it bluntly, all business, established upon a backbone crew of labor and education activists whose experiences stretch back to Cesar Chavez and La Paz. Keep both eyes on Sacramento, because great things are going to come out of that crew, and soon.
When that event was over, I jumped into another car and went to a small Sacramento airport. It was here that I was privileged to meet one of the most remarkable and excellent people I have come across in all my days on the road. Gary Rhine is a noted documentary filmmaker who has focused much of his work on the life, politics, and struggles of Native Americans. One of his films, "Peyote Road," was central to the successful effort to overturn the Supreme Court decision barring the use of peyote in Native religious rituals. When not behind a camera, Rhine runs Rhino's Blog, an excellent place for news and commentary on the day's events.
Gary is, among other things, an accomplished pilot, and volunteered both his plane and his time to get me down to the Saturday night event in Los Angeles. He piled me into his plane and instructed me solemnly on what I could touch (the little fear handle by the door) and what I could not touch (everything else). We leapt into the sky and made our way south, talking politics, strategy, and documentary filmmaking over the headset microphones. All the while I listened to the roger-wilco communications coming over the headset from various airports along the Sacramento Valley. The view from the plane was simply staggering, and we landed in Santa Monica without a hitch.
The event in Los Angeles was organized by Mimi Kennedy, Chair of the PDA National Board, and several other PDA leaders from that city. It was organized around a play titled "Stuff Happens," which I will get to in a moment. Kennedy had arranged for a large group of people to come together before the play to hear my talk and to discuss strategy. As with Berkeley and Sacramento, this PDA chapter is incredibly strong and well-organized, filled with people of great energy and passion.
The play's the thing. "Stuff Happens" by playwright David Hare will be playing at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles until July 17, and I cannot recommend it strongly enough. It is an historical perspective of the Iraq occupation, beginning on September 11, and running through the American and British push for war up to and beyond the "Shock and Awe" attacks of March 2003. The characters in the play include George W. Bush, Colin Powell, Condi Rice, Dick Cheney, Don Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, and Tony Blair.
I am no Hollywood buff, but even I recognized virtually every actor on the stage. Bush was played with eerie accuracy by Keith Carradine, Powell by Tyrees Allen, Rice by Lorraine Toussant, and Blair by Julian Sands. This was a powerful ensemble, and they carried the story off with a power and depth that is difficult to describe. You just have to see it. Much of the dialogue is taken from actual statements made by these individuals in the run-up to the war. "Stuff Happens" will enrage you, make you laugh, make you think, and most of all, make anyone who sees it understand just how broken and devious a path the Bush administration traveled to bring us into Iraq.
On Sunday morning, Gary and I were in the plane again and headed for Santa Rosa for the last event of the trip. It was on this leg that the only real bump of the weekend was crossed, and hard. Gary and I were at about 9,500 feet just above the San Francisco Bay area. The city was glittering below and to our left. We were talking over the headset microphones, when WHAM! The plane jolted hard, slamming Gary and me into the ceiling of the cockpit.
Imagine driving over a large speed bump at 200 miles per hour. The earpiece of my headphones was over my face and Gary's whole headset was in his lap. As it turns out, we either crashed into the Spirit In The Sky, or crossed a belt of wake turbulence left behind by the passage of a larger plane. The jolt was better than a hot cup of coffee, and the autopilot corrected for it immediately so there wasn't even any time to get scared. We landed safely a few minutes later, and I had a nice lump on the top of my head to commemorate the journey.
The event in Santa Rosa was remarkable for all the same reasons that made the other events of the weekend so special, with an added bonus. After I finished my remarks, we were joined by Representative Lynn Woolsey, sponsor of H. Con. Res. 35, the legislation demanding that Bush immediately organize and implement a plan to get our troops out of Iraq. She addressed the crowd for several minutes and then took many questions.
At one point, Rep. Woolsey spoke of the five Republicans who voted for the amendment she added to a Defense Appropriations bill a couple of weeks ago. The amendment, like Resolution 35, demanded the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. Those five Republicans, who joined with 122 Democrats to support the amendment, have since come under intense pressure from GOP leadership to get back in line. Woolsey described this pressure and the utterly shameless nature of it; any GOP Representative who considers deviating from the party line is threatened with a variety of punishments, including loss of chairmanships and access to campaign fundraising. "That's blackmail!" shouted a member of the audience. "No," replied Woolsey, "that's fascism."
The occupation of Iraq, the need for withdrawal from that country, the Downing Street Minutes, the PDA demand for a Resolution of Inquiry into that scandal, our addiction to petroleum, environmental concerns, labor issues, media activism, and the need for PDA activists to take over the Democratic Party from the bottom up in order to affect real change both within the party and the nation entire - these were the meat and mead of our journey through California this past weekend.
Let the word go forth that change is coming, and that California is leading the way. It was my pleasure and privilege to spend that time with the excellent organizers and activists of the PDA chapters in that great state. My grateful thanks go out to all who helped Sherry, Kevin, and me navigate the journey seamlessly, who fed us and took us into their homes, who showed us where progressive activism is today, and where it is going.
The game's afoot.
