CONVERSION PARADE A BIG SUCCESS

We had more than 250 in our parade in Portland last night. We marched down one lane of traffic through the center on town on Congress Street at dusk. We had stilt walkers, a string of Bush administration operatives in prison suits linked together in chains, huge puppets, a woman with her face inside a cardboard TV labeled CNN, Fox, CBS, ABC, NBC, a band of drummers and horn players, women in black leading the parade, fire twirlers, high school and college student delegations, and a large Unitarian contingent at the end singing "Down by the riverside" - we ain't gonna study war no more! Our fools no more parade was a huge success and loads of fun. We passed our hundreds of leaflets to people on the street as we passed by explaining why economic conversion of the military industrial complex is so important. There were many people on the streets because spring is just coming to Maine and it was a fairly mild evening so people wanted to be out considering the fact they have had to be inside so much this winter with all the snow that we have had. So we had a big audience!

Singer/songwriter Tom Neilson from western Mass. unveiled his new song, "Fools No More," at the parade and then sang a few more songs at the potluck supper we held after the parade at a local church. It was great to see good numbers of people had come from places north and south of Portland to be with us. Tom will sing on Sunday here in Brunswick at a benefit concert to raise funds to pay production costs of my cable TV show called "This Issue." Sam Colson and David Brooks, the two guys that produce my cable show in Bath, were at the parade. Sam was pushing a bomb down the street and David was filming the whole event and plans to edit it and then put it on the cable station.

On Monday I head to Colorado Springs, Co. for a couple days. Protests will be held there at the annual convention of the proponents of war in space. Citizens for Peace in Space, led by Bill Sulzman, will be hosting me and I will speak in the Springs and then travel to Denver and Boulder for talks as well. It's always fun to protest with the folks in Colorado Springs as they are very creative and have been at it for a long time. The group there is one of the founders of the Global Network, and along with the Florida Coalition for Peace & Justice, have been continuously protesting Star Wars longer than any other local group in the U.S.