BAKERSFIELD, CALIFORNIA

A dozen Bakersfield residents showed up to the local protest corner (Stockdale Highway and California Street) on Friday decked out in orange t-shirts and ribbons to call a halt to the criminal Bush regime.  Lots of supporters honked as they drove by, and some stopped long enough to get ribbons being handed out on the scene.  Many had some very negative things to say about the Bush's beyond-belief abuses of power, and some noted that Congress seems bent on doing absolutely nothing to stop this.  The seeds for wearing orange were planted that night, and can only continue to spread by Labor Day.

ATLANTA:

A group of us converged in Midtown Atlanta at 10th and Peachtree on Friday evening at 5pm... the horns and thumbs up gestures we received well surpassed any of the other gestures of non-support. We passed out fliers, ribbons, wristbands (orange rubber bands... which were enthusiastically welcomed) and streamers.

From there we drove downtown to Woodruff Park where the monthly Critical Mass ride was commencing. Several more folks joined us and we spread throughout the crowd and surrounding area... passing out more orange paraphernalia including bandannas... again engaging folks in debate which in some instances continued even after moving on to spread the word to another group. We packed up after the riders departed destined for midtown and the indie theater the Landmark. On the way, the critical mass riders intercepted traffic where we witnessed our handiwork... bandana, streamer, wristband and ribbon laden riders weaving their way through the city.

We arrived at the Landmark Theater... were warmly welcomed by patrons and eatery staffs alike... spread the "Declare it NOW" word... added yet more names to our mailing list...

From there the night came to a close... which was now 10pm. Overall a positive
endeavor made by all... with the commitment of more ORANGE Fridays to come.

CHICAGO:

Chicago's Impeachment Festival turned out to be a brilliant display of Orange, as a group of 30-50 enthusiastic people “declared it now” in the face of Chicago Police Department's attempts to intimidate the crowd, piquing the interest of nearby picnickers and park-goers, some stopped to talk, and left with WCW literature.

Demonstrators resist intimidation. After being told by Park officials that political signs were not permitted, Chicago demonstrators from the Declare it Now event, (along with some newer faces) took to the streets along Western Ave., holding up WCW's “Stop the war now! Impeach Bush for War Crimes” banner, and were met with honks of appreciation.

Message worth filming. One man, a documentary film maker, stopped to inquire about what was going on then proceeded to drop his 4 children home and returned to get interviews from the crowd. Strong sense of all of our individual responsibility in getting others others to visibly oppose the Bush Regime and demand impeachment, through their wearing orange. People pledged to get family friends and co-workers to wear orange.

Creative ways to send out a challenge to “Declare it now” One man took to screen printing messages on swatches of Orange fabric, with messages like: “He lied, He spied, Impeach Him”, and “Regime Change, U.S.A. The World Can't Wait.” Ribbons and Bandanas were distributed for people to take home and hand out to friends and family.

KALAMAZOO, MICHIGAN:

Here are photos from our Declare it now launch at the Kalamazoo Black Arts Festival on 7/27. The people were enthusiastic about the wear orange campaign and very receptive. We handed out almost everything we had.

SAN FRANCISCO, BAY AREA

On Friday the sun was barely up when thousands and thousands of Bay Area freeway commuters looked up over the freeways (one in San Francisco and one in Berkeley) to see huge banners that launched our first Orange Friday.  Over the stop-and-go traffic on 101 in San Francisco, WCW's banners said “Impeach Bush and Cheney – Wear Orange – www.worldcantwait.org”.  But in Berkeley the situation was even better [see photo] because we had that same banner and three WCW youth organizers waving down at the traffic -- and we were joined by people who brought two other banners.  One was a regular freeway blogger with his huge “impeach” banner.  And four Code Pink women also showed up with their own which said “do something for peace today.”  Everybody said we've got to do this every Friday and promised to be back next week.

Next, a very big and enthusiastic WCW group set up tables and big signs at the world famous San Francisco tourist area, Fisherman's Wharf.  We talked with crowds of people all afternoon – they came from all over the country and the world, and a lot of them will be returning home newly equipped with their orange bandanas, ribbons, and fliers.  We got something like 1200 orange flyers passed out.***

People come to Fisherman's Wharf for fun (and our “camp” was between the robot men, a steel drum band, and later some high octane breakdancers).  World Can't Wait caused a lot of smiles and laughter too, as people caught sight of our (life-size but portable) jail cell with “Bush” (a guy in a suit and a mask) behind bars under a big “International War Criminal” sign.  But many many people had serious thoughts, anger, anguish, and hope right under the surface too.  Conversations and debates broke out in many languages, and most of the time the crew staffing our tables were kept busy talking, signing people up, and getting “Declare It Now” materials into their hands.  More of us were out in the crowd, and we too found a lot of people would see the headline on our orange flyers** and were glad to tell us what they thought***.

All together we had a crew of 27 (about 15 at any one time) and we estimate we were seen by a couple of thousand people, and talked to hundreds.   Notably, a lot of people who get our emails and haven't come out to do outreach before, showed up on time and enthusiastic to jump out into the action.

We ran across almost no international tourists who like the Bush regime.  Travelers from other countries often were utterly delighted to hear the determined message of World Can't Wait, and amazed to learn we're spreading a nationwide movement.  Over and over, people from Spain, Venezuela, the Ukraine, Japan, the Netherlands, Australia, China, Canada, told us how important it is to make it known around the world that there are people here trying to take responsibility for driving out the Bush regime.  For example, we met a Danish family who totally supported us, dropping money into our donation can “to help both countries.”  Generally, most tourists in family groups .— i.e., ordinary middle-class people – were very open toward WCW, including great conversations with German, British and Latin American families.  Several of us found our message seemed to attract conversations with French people, who would point out that their own new president (Sarkozy) is just like Bush, so we've both got to get presidents thrown out.

Among American tourists the sentiments were much more mixed and across the spectrum.  The most interested people would cluster at our table and want to know more about how World Can't Wait thinks the Bush-Cheney impeachment might happen, or what our plan is for getting the regime out and what would happen then.  We sold about $400 worth of bandanas and ribbons, buttons and literature among all of them.  And like so many of these conversations WCW always has when we're reaching out to the broad public lately – you really cannot predict just by looking at people what they think about all this.  Some way “conservative-looking” people are the most excited to meet WCW because they're so angered and/or distraught at the direction of things, and sometimes cool-looking people just cannot be bothered to give you the time of day.

Of course many many people young and old who come from more conservative areas than the Bay Area were really happy to meet us and wanted ribbons and bandanas, and signed up for WCW emails.  They told us about the political atmosphere where they live.  Some have plenty of friends who like themselves want the war to end, but there isn't much public activity to get involved with locally, so the sentiment stays relatively private.  Other people said they don't feel much hope for change because most people they know or who they see around them support Bush, or at least are going along with it.  Grammar school kids wanted to take our literature for school, one wanted to personally thank us all “(“You people are doing the right thing!”).  Older people who were Vietnam war protestors said they were inspired by seeing the World Can't Wait youth who were handing out the orange, passionately talking on the bullhorn, organizing other youth right out of the crowd, and also periodically taking on loud debates on the spot with right-wingers. 

A lot of people who we met – including many of those who've been following WCW for a while, but who came out to help organize yesterday for the first time – have been jolted by the latest performance from the Democrats.  They are, like so many other people who have looked to the Democratic Party to take care of things, angry at Pelosi, the Democratic leadership, and many are now angry at John Conyers because they knew about last week's meeting and civil disobedience (where several hundred demanded he back impeachment, and when he refused, 46 were arrested).  Some said  they cannot uunderstand why Conyers won't do the right thing as he has done many times in the past.  It isn't as if the words of WSCW's Call didn't move these friends before and suddenly it all just clicked into place magically or 100%.  But this emerging situation where a rising people's demand for impeachment is undeniable – yet the Democratic leadership insists on denying it – is causing people to ask themselves in a new way “OK then, what do I do now?”  The idea that the Democrats really are doing what they are doing -- and if you want something different people will have to in very large numbers go outside the bounds of politics as usual and waiting for saviors from the Democrats, and force the question in a whole other way -- this is a big and maybe daunting picture to look at and enter into, but it seems like many people are seeing this is what they need to do.  Several of the people who came out yesterday have told us that it was our recent Town Hall program (Sunsara Taylor, Rev. Lennox Yearwood, Dennis Bernstein, and the whole World Can't Wait message) that convinced them of this.

Now, with an action as bold as this, at Fisherman's Wharf not at a progressive event, we certainly weren't “preaching to the choir!”  We also met people who don't agree with us at all.  Some turned up their noses walking by, saying things like “I'm a Republican for Bush and proud of it!”  Only a few were outright belligerent, mainly pro-war but sometimes also very openly bigoted and racist.  There were the typical jerks who yelled intelligent things like “Bush Is Number One! Bush is My Man” while giving us two middle fingers, or screamed obscenities into our faces.  The old chestnut “Get A Job!” seems to never go out of fashion either. But this didn't phase us.  Mainly we avoided getting drawn into fruitless arguments, although sometimes we would challenge hecklers to defend their position and then as nearby people would overhear these exchanges, others would be drawn forward to come talk to us, ask for flyers, etc.

And with crowds this big there were maybe 40% who we couldn't tell what they really think.  They would stop at the jail cell to listen to the speakers on the bullhorn, and they might smile, or snap a picture, but wouldn't take a flyer or talk to us.

We also learned that even with the people who liked our message, it wasn't that easy to sell the orange bandanas.  Lots of people agreed in a heartbeat that the Bush regime is criminally dangerous – especially in terms of the Iraq war and occupation – but to want to take up the wearing of orange, they had to hear some good reasons why an orange groundswell would make any difference to the possibility of stopping that regime.  There was much pro-impeachment opinion, but a lot of people also responding back that it won't be possible, and others saying“it would have been good but now it's too late” or tossing off the problem because “they'll be gone soon anyway.”  We had those kinds of conversations a lot.

So that's a snapshot for now.  Our chapter intends to (a) build strength off our experience so far and what we can learn from other WCW chapters, including how we want to strengthen and deepen our “presentation” and the ways we “pitch our message” and (b) there'll be the following “Orange Fridays” where we want to expand this project to a LOT more people.  We are planning to take this to different crossroads areas for the next two weeks, and all of the newest people who came yesterday have said they want to do this again so we may have the potential to set up in more than one place each Friday.  (Although part of what attracted the quality of attention from the crowd was how big our crew was, we weren't just an ordinary political leafleting scene  - of which there are many many in the Bay Area – people could see right away that we had a BIG MESSAGE.)