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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Valley&State Backpage O&E Sports Archives Classifieds Faith&Beliefs Obituaries Revels October 7, 2004 A very simple solution as to what you can do By Noreen Hulteen Ashland A recent event at the Unitarian fellowship was interesting. First, because I knew almost no one in there. It was a very young crowd, which surprised me. They had entertainment by David Rovics and David Lipman. One was a very funny comedian, the other a protest singer the likes of which has not been heard since the 1970s. Both were tremendous! Norman Solomon opened the speaking. He was pretty good, but not memorable. Daniel Ellsberg was a great disappointment. He was really a downer (It doesn't matter which presidential candidate wins; nothing will change). Some of his aside comments were interesting, but he is a very poor public speaker - he apologized too many times for having opinions, and he waffled on far too long - restating points too many times. He is currently trying to persuade other bureaucrats to release top-secret documents. He is a hero better viewed from a distance and rated by his works, not his words! Medea Benjamin, who spoke next, was, however, a different kettle of tomatoes. She was awesome. She was filled with hope and enthusiasm and inoculated her audience with a good measure of her spirit. She is active in civil disobedience and managed to get herself and several Code Pink members up close and personal with the bush cadre inside the Republican convention - and was consequently thrown out and into jail! Everyone on the dais, however, spoke of the nastiness of war, the wrongness of bush, the damage to America, etc., etc. From the comedian to each speaker and the audience who got a chance to ask questions, they all knew that the war is all about oil. (Or, as one entertainer described it: Operation Iraqi Liberation - acronym OIL! BUT - not one person mentioned that the best contribution we can make towards peace is to stop using so much oil! If every American who believes that we should get out of Iraq would only leave their government-subsidized cars in the garage at least 2 days a week, we would quickly get attention. I tried to pose the question "What are you doing to reduce your oil consumption so it becomes less profitable to kill people for oil? " but the question time was gone before I could get a turn. It is another one of those situations like: "Everyone wants to go to heaven but nobody wants to die." Everyone in that room wants the war to end, but almost none are doing the one big thing they can do that will make a difference. DailyTidings.com Home Page Valley&State | Backpage | O&E | Sports | Archives | Weather | Classifieds Columnists | Faith&Beliefs | Obituaries | Revels | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2004 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Click Here Site Search: .:Advertisements:. RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams