They Can Run . . . and They Can Hide (at least for now)

Yes, I'm back! Let's just say my entourage is very demanding of my time. I've not blogged in almost 3 months, but that doesn't mean that that the Phoenix peace community has been resting on its laurels. In fact, it has been a very busy summer.

But now, to the subject at hand. Our very own Liz is back from the battlefields of Washington, D.C. for a couple of weeks. While it's a nice vacation for her, she wanted to get in some face time with Harry Mitchell while he's back in Phoenix. The last action in a week-long flurry of Mitchell actions occurred yesterday evening.

Rep. Mitchell was set to speak at a Young Democrats function honoring Jim Pederson at the Mondrian in Scottsdale and we were set, of course, to rally for peace outside. Cherub, LB, and I were setting up our banners on the corner when Liz called from inside the hotel to tell us that the event had been postponed. Now, earlier in the week, the head of the Young Dems had called Cherub to complain about our rally, saying that it would "ruin" the event so many young people had worked so hard to put on. He even said that it was "sad" that we would consider putting on our rally at that time. Cherub replied that no, it was sad that mothers and fathers were finding out every day that their children had been killed or injured in the illegal, immoral occupation of Iraq (or words to that effect).

Well, we decided to continue with the rally, but we started wondering why they might have postponed the event. There seemed to be three possibilities:

1. A lot of the Young Dems are still on summer break and complained that they couldn't make the event (which is the excuse they gave);

2. They didn't have many people coming, so they decided to cancel the event; or

3. The Democrats are scared of us (which is what we decided is the case).

Peace organizations, including Code Pink and Gold Star Families for peace, were the darlings of the Democrats until we started putting their feet to the fire and demanding that they do the job they were elected for.

Anyway, if the Young Dems reschedule this event, you can be sure that End the War Coalition, Women in Black, and Code Pink Phoenix will be out there again.