Friday, March 23, 2007

Dr. Sami Al-Arian and Ali Al-Marri

last day of protest

Today was full of surprises. For the first time it was drizzling, but no worries, my posters were waterproof. Nancy wasn't could not come today i was all psyched to do it alone all day. Who do i see across the street? None other than matt. i thought he must be doing some business but he crossed the street and came over to stand with me. i found out quite a few things about matt that i didn't know before.
about 10 minutes later a young man, 20 some thing, came over and asked me why should al-marri be freed. according to him when bush said he is enemy combatant, he is. he can be held for as long as the government wanted. then he started the whole spiel about the us giving the world democracy, women the right to vote, etc.

at times the discussion got quite heated, matt and i took turns debating with him. i gave him my card, he reluctantly took it and put in his pocket. then i tried to give him a loose change dvd, which he refused to take it saying he is an american he has a right not to take it. i wanted to say yes as an american you have a right to stay ignorant but he didn't give me a chance.

shortly after he left, a car stopped near us and the man leaned over a woman passenger and said some thing. it turns out he had seen the sign earlier in the week and looked up on the internet about al-arian. he was very appreciated of our effort. he belonged to peace and justice organization of rockford. he also signed our petition.

matt left at ~1:15. soon afterwards bob came over to say hello and sign the petition. he also signed for harriet who stayed in the van. several women asked what was going on, one woman read both sides of the info paper i had given her.
by now the drizzle had stopped and the sun almost peeped.

the judge was supposed to rule on the al-arian case. i could find out what the ruling was. it is not reflected in his web site. his weight loss has been updated to 55 lbs in 60 days of hunger strike. i even sent him an email but have received no response. it does not seem promising.

elaine Hopkins has written a blog, which can be accessed at : http://peoriastory.typepad.com/ .

mike miller's column will appear in tomorrow's journal star.

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