FROM HOT-LANTA

The U.S. Social Forum began with a wonderful two-hour march through downtown Atlanta (hot-lanta) and had to have more than 5,000 in it. The local newspaper reported 1,000 and in the first sentence of the article used the words "left-wing" to describe the event. Just checked the Atlanta Journal-Constitution web site to get the picture above and they already have their article for Friday mornings paper posted. The first words of the new article are "Karl Marx". So you can see how Atlanta "officialdom" is taking to the event.

We marched past the Grady hospital yesterday and a large delegation of hospital workers were outside with banners calling on the county not to shut down the hospital. I was told it is the only public hospital that serves poor people. Now it is in danger of closing. Losing money we were told.

The march was quite wonderful, led by a large indigenous delegation of native people and was full of black, Latino, disabled, and other groups as well. Our friends from Atlanta said that few people in the local community came to the march. So obviously the local newspaper has likely been red-baiting the event in advance making local "liberals" afraid to turn out. But in spite of that things are off to a good start.

I went to two workshops today and MB and I do our space and military economy workshops on Friday. Unfortunately the workshops are spread out all over town in different venues which makes it hard to choose which one and where you will go. Otherwise it is a great event.

And yes it is hot as hell here.

On the way back to the Buddhist temple tonight MB and I ran into former Rep. Cynthia McKinney at the subway station. We said hello, reminded her that we had organized a speaking event for her in Gainesville, Florida five years ago. I asked her if it was true that she was thinking of running for president as a Green. She did not deny the rumor.