This is a republication of a post originally published on 7/24/2009. The first actual coffeehouse event will take place this Sunday, 11/15/2009, 4:30-7:30 pm, at San Francisco Friends Meeting, 65 9th Street (between Mission & Market, near Civic Center BART).
A vision for an anti-war coffeehouse event
A lot of pro-peace people say, "It's not enough to be against war, you also have to be for peace."
While I agree with that, I can't help but think: "It's not enough to be pro-peace, you also have to be against war."
Simplistic, but true. What have I done lately to make the world a safer place? Not much.
I had a vision of organizing a Sunday evening anti-war coffeehouse at the Quaker meetinghouse, with open mic and open wifi. You could versify, sing, or chant. You could have conversations about the issues. You could weep and moan if you needed, or laugh and dance if you were moved to.
You could email your friends to explain your views. You could write letters to your Representative and Senator. You could write letters to the editors of the local papers, which is arguably more effective because it's more public. (And "papers" is plural because the SF Bay Area still has several papers for now, including many freebies.)
If you're originally from somewhere else in the country or world, you could write to your hometown paper and express your views.
(Even if you're not a pacifist, you could come if you're against the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.)
And you could feel less alone and more engaged. I'd like that part.
