[pjw] REPORT BACK: Friday rally #14 under stay-at-home orders

[Peace and Justice Works]

Hello again PJW-IAG supporters

Yesterday's Friday rally for peace and justice once again included the Ann 
Huntwork Memorial Sign for Peace, picket signs, discussion of current 
events, and positive interactions with the community.

With Multnomah County now in "Phase 1" of reopening, we are allowed by the 
Governor's guidelines to have as many as 25 people at the events which 
continue each Friday at the SW corner of Pioneer Courthouse Square. That 
said, if you want to join is we urge you to connect with us first so that 
we don't exceed that number. Given the physical obstacles of the Square, 
we have a plan to split the rally/march across to the opposite side of the 
street should we get more than 12 people at the original corner. This week 
we had 6 people at the event, everyone had face coverings.

Oddly, there was not as much traffic (pedestrian or automobile) as there 
was a week ago when the "opening" first happened. However we still got 
plenty of people honking their horns and being supportive of our messages 
for global peace and police accountability.  A muralist working on a store 
window asked to take our picture. We had 1/4 page handouts to announce 
Monday's livestreaming event with Prof. Zaher Wahab talking about 
Afghanistan, but didn't give many of them out.

At the corner and along the route, I announced the event and talked about 
the ongoing US wars (and specifically the continued US presence in 
Afghanistan) and struggle for racial justice in America. We also talked 
about the Supreme Court's surprising support for LGBTQ+ and DACA rights, 
and the President's continued poor handling of the coronavirus pandemic. 
As usual we noted the connection between military spending and the lack of 
resources to handle this crisis.

We also mentioned the upcoming possible move by Israel to annex part of 
the West Bank-- and the likely backlash that will follow, even if the US 
pretends to stay neutral. Here's an article from Agence France Presse 
outlining what's planned and the Israelis' cavalier attitude about the 
imperialist plans.

https://news.yahoo.com/israel-wages-war-semantics-over-west-bank-area-024532157.html

This could happen as soon as next Wednesday, July 1. That day also, I 
mentioned, Portland City Council is poised to vote on exending the 
Portland Poilce Association's contract for a year. While that gives more 
time to re-imagine what the police are supposed to be doing, it also means 
locking in some restrictions in that contract for another year-- including 
that our police oversight system can't investigate deadly force cases.

We've now had the scrolling digital sign out for three weeks running. It's 
strange that the bright lights don't seem to attract more attention. 
There's also been a weird phenomenon as we come to the end of the march 
each week at the corner of the Federal Courthouse, which sits at the cross 
section of eastbound and northbound MAX lines-- the sign just turns itself 
off when we get there. If anyone has any theories let me know-- it's not a 
timer, it's not overheating, and I don't think it has to do with the 
vibrations the sign is being subjected to. I've tested the sign plugged 
into the generator in various other configurations and it normally keeps 
running. Also, once we walked a full block away I was able to turn it back 
on again. There may be some kind of electronic interference that's doing 
it? Very strange.

There may be more but I'm cathching up on piled up "to do" lists...

Thanks

--dan handelman
Peace and Justice Works
        Iraq Affinity Group
        PO Box 42456
        Portland, OR   97242
        (503) 236-3065
        iraq at pjw.info
        http://www.pjw.info/Iraq.html
        Donate on line: http://www.pjw.info/pjwdonate.html