[pjw] BRIEF REPORT BACK+INFO: Tuesday Afghanistan action + State JTTF

[Peace and Justice Works]

Hello again PJW supporters

Before I get to the brief report back on Tuesday's event, here's a quick 
bit of news in the ongoing Joint Terrorism Task Force campaign.

Today, 16 Oregon-based social justice organizations and three prominent
individuals sent a letter to Governor Kate Brown asking her to end the
state's cooperation with the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force. The text
of the letter is pasted in below and posted online at
http://www.portlandcopwatch.org/jttf_stateletter2020.html .

PJW signed on as Peace and Justice Works/Portland Copwatch.

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On Tuesday, five of us split up among the four corners at SE Burnside and 
Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. The Ann Huntwork sign was very visible thanks 
to (?) the shadows cast by the tall buildings now at that end of the 
bridge. I used the "US Out Of..." message and added
  "19 Years
  End the Afghan War"
The sign doesn't have an exclamation point for some reason.

We got a very large number of honking horns and thumbs-ups, along with a 
smattering of folks who stopped by to talk. A few of those people were 
negative toward us, one asking whether we support women's rights. I 
replied we do, but if the Afghan military were bombing our country to get 
us to have equal rights how would he feel? He walked away. Another person 
asked if we were there to support President Trump's withdrawal plan, and 
we said we support getting the troops out whoever does it. So it actually 
seems our hecklers this week were from the left rather than being Trump 
supporters-- very interesting.

Usually one of my favorite parts of being at the end of the bridge during 
rush hour is handing out fact sheets. Due to COVID, we ended up not handing 
out any fact sheets at all even though we had them in the wagon.

There's no political update on this report because the layout (most of us 
being 200 or more feet apart from each other) and the heavy traffic, it 
was not conducive to making announcements. When I finally used the 
bullhorn to let people know our 90 minute action was over at 6 PM, the 
batteries were very low. So, just as well.

Thanks to all who participated and who supported us, and especially to Jan 
from Stand For Peace who's out there every Tuesday 4:30-5:30 and hosted 
us. (Her action began in 2014 after we did our "An Occupation by Any Other 
Name: Iraq 11 Years Later" event down on Burnside; I don't remember when 
it shifted from Wednesdays to Tuesdays.)

OK, hope a few folks can join us for our virtual meeting on Monday-- 
we now have a policy where one person can join me in person in the 
office, too! (PCW tested this out this past Monday and it seems to have 
gone fine.)

---dan handelman
peace and justice works iraq affinity group