Brad writing at Letters In Bottles reports an offshoot of the Cindy Sheehan Bus Tour stopped in Madison last evening and nothing much happened. They managed to attract maybe 2,000 true believers by camping for the night in the heart of the most Democratic area of Madison. The Wisconsin State Journal Article calls it “a near-capacity crowd”.
Milwaukee based Peace Action Wisconsin, another anti-(fill in the blank) organization reports they are soldiering on despite difficult financial times. If I’m reading the website correctly, the money problem became severe after the Presidential election. I think that makes their problems Bush’s fault.
The last twelve months, especially since the frustration of the presidential election and a slump in the economy, have resulted in unexpectedly low donations and membership renewals. Grant opportunities have also declined, with less foundation money to distribute due to lower interest rates. Therefore, we are launching our first major Fundraising Campaign to maintain our work for peace and justice.True to the teachings from all those activist workshops, they are putting a positive spin on the fact they have reached 37% or $33,537 of their fund raising goal. They kindly provide a listing of the people who kicked in $100 or more. The contrast to the huge outpouring of dollars for Hurricane Katrina relief is striking. I doubt the anti-war activists understand that Iraq was every bit as broken a society as the Gulf Coast. The difference being that the American disaster was like an acute accident, whereas Iraq was like a chronic disease long ignored.
