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Thursday, 14 September 06 :: PEOPLE'S PARADE: Politics, social justice and other Eugene obsessions hit the streets.

stolen from the Eugene Weekly (really, CC it y'all!)

PEOPLE'S PARADE
Politics, social justice and other Eugene obsessions hit the streets.

Eugeneans know how to put on a people's parade, and along with the marching bands and some commercial entries, this year's Eugene Celebration Parade was dominated by good-natured statements on the political scene, the upcoming election, and the human condition.

Taking top honors this year, but getting scant media attention until right now, was the elaborate Peace Train entry organized by the Million Mom March and a dozen other local peace and social justice organizations. About 80 people marched in the entry.

Betsy Steffensen of the MMM was chief organizer, Tim Boyden was the chief engineer and locomotive builder, David Sonnichsen was assistant engineer, Jerry Brule was box car engineer, Bert Byden was choreographic engineer, Karen Steffensen was chief boxcar artist, Carol Melia was musical engineer.

Participating groups included the MMM, CALC, Democratic Party of Lane County Peace Caucus, Darfur Peace Group, WAND, Department of Peace, Wednesday Peace Vigil at the Federal Building, Women in Black, Unitarians for Peace, Free Suzanne Swift. Veterans Against Torture, Middle East Peace Group "We refuse to be Enemies," and Skipping Stones Magazine..

The statement given to the judges reads: "Here comes the Peace Train! Your families, friends and neighbors have joined with our local peace and justice groups to bring you this wonderful train full of love, compassion, and hope for peace in our community and for our beautiful planet. So come ride the Peace Train, All aboard!"

Following the award announcement, Bert Boyden said, "When peace wins, shouldn't it be on the front page?" and, "We want to thank the judges for letting peace win this year. Today peace wins in Eugene, tomorrow the whole world."

Hundreds of Eugeneans volunteered to make the celebration happen and a preliminary count shows that 14,650 wristbands were sold at the entry gates.— Ted Taylor

the peace people in the eugene celebration parade

posted by brooke at September 14, 2006 11:49 PM

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i'm brooke, born in '73. i am currently a phd student in instructional technology. this is the blog where i capture all the neurotic, and the few non-neurotic, moments that seem to come with being a phd student (if you want to read less neuroses and more professionalism go to: oer's, dl's, reuse and culture: it's about a phd student researching digital resources in a multicultural world). i have been from eugene, oregon for a long time.. 8 years specifically (its my home now, but i grew up in southwestern virginia), but now i'm here in logan, utah at utah state university. after finding my roots in eugene i never could have expected that i would leave that liberal oasis and head to utah. but i did and there are days when its a blessing and days when i'm tempted to go back to oregon and beg the folks at lost valley educational center to let me move in. but i won't leave because there are days when this process is better than any kind of high i could ever imagine. what else? i collect things, i have 2 cats, 2 kayaks, 2 laptops (i'm a geek - one mac, one pc). i can be emailed at brookesblog@rivervision.com.