Noisy Balloonist Blog is the apprentice

My rhetoric is not as labored and apocalyptic as it used to be. Regrettably, the crowds have shrunk. But there is still a war on, slaking the desert with blood for a fourth unmerciful year and currently projected to cost nearly half a trillion dollars. So we march. And we march. And we march. And insha’allah we fucking vote. And we march. Here are photos from the March 17 peace action in Hollywood, CA.

The real local color.

Code Pink.

She’s fingered the perp.

Jester-in-Chief.

March steps off from Hollywood and Vine.

March detail.

I think so. Right? Yes, fuck him. Peacefully.

Street theater.

Spotted along the march route.

Pensive Sheen.

Jackson Browne, Ben Harper (pictured) and Ozomatli rallied the crowd.

Future voter.

I didn’t know I had friends in Guatemala, but I got this postcard. Pueblo a Pueblo is a small aid organization based in Washington, D.C., committed to assisting the Tz’utujil Maya of the Guatemalan highlands, particularly those in the community of Panabaj, on the shores of the lake. Panabaj was wiped out by the mudslides that followed in the wake of Hurricane Stan in October, 2005. The world was already fatigued by tragedy, however, having endured the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and the unrelenting slaughter in Iraq and Afghanistan. The disasters in Guatemala and elsewhere throughout Centro America went largely unnoticed.

So I’ve donated to Pueblo a Pueblo when I could. They’re good at keeping folks updated about the improvements in Panabaj via their site. Then the card appeared, hand-signed by seven people, thanking me for my support. I was very touched that anyone, under these circumstances, would take the time to deliver such a personal gesture to their donors. I emailed PaP to convey my gratitude, and ask if they might be able to forward my respects to the senders.

I received a reply from the Executive Director of Pueblo a Pueblo. He writes:

Thanks so much for your email. I am forwarding it on to the coordinator in Santiago. It was clear in Santiago that folks wanted a way to connect with people who made contributions and express their appreciation… I think it is part of T’zutujil culture… they are a very proud Mayan group… so they came up with this idea, which I likewise found very moving.

This is a heartwarming little circle of international good vibrations we’ve established here. Give if you can and join the circle.

The westernmost pillar of the defunct IM Interactive Friendship Bridge (Boo, it lives forever in my heart), one Matthew Bouchard, slapped a bumper sticker high on the wall between our desks once upon a time. It depicts a quote from Mahatma Gandhi:

We must be the change we wish to see in the world.

I keep a photo in a little glass frame at my desk. I snapped it at last September’s massive peace rally in Washington, D.C. A man holds a sign displaying a quote from Edmund Burke:

The only thing neccesary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.