Day 11 - Starving for Peace

I've been starving for peace - quite literally - having made my way through Day 11 without food, as I am participating in the Troops Home Fast. We have sat vigil outside the White House since the Fourth of July, and folks across the country and around the world are fasting as well. Here in DC we've mainained a presence in Lafayette Park every day, and have fanned out to Capitol Hill, to the studios of the sunday morning talk shows, and today to the Center for Creative Nonviolence to serve ice cream to the homeless.

I can't say I actually planned to go without food for this long. I was only staying long enough to fast for a few days - in solidarity - and then do a studio session with my friend Steven Capozzola. That was way back on Day 3, when the hunger for actual food was more or less gone, but the aroma of edibles could still trigger my brain into acting hungry. Steven has been hosting me here in DC for the duration, and I have vicariously eaten a few meals by watching him eat. The chocolate that I was scooping this afternoon became a bit tempting, but I had to settle for getting it all over my shirt.

My diet is water, the occasional Vitamin Water (for the electrolytes), and a concoction whose recipe I picked up from Dick Gregory that contains a gallon of water, juice of 8 lemons (or is it 6?), and some maple syrup. The proper recipe calls for some cayenne pepper, but the store nearest by doesn't have it. Lemonade, so to speak.

So I'm feeling good, but with a decidedly slow profile. I go down to Lafayette Park every day around 10am, except for yesterday when we had a press conference at Congress with members of the Out of Iraq Caucus Barbara Lee (my representative in Oakland). Maxine Waters, Lynn Woolsey, Cynthia McKinney, and Dennis Kucinich Immediately after, I spent the early afternoon doing some grassroots lobbying in the Cannon Building with Maria, who lives in DC and came by for a few days to support our cause. Here's a photo of me from yesterday, after a brief nap back at the park latr in the day. It's shot by this guy Elvert, who comes by pretty frequently to take pictures of us for his blog

On Tuesday, which would've been Day 8, I did a call in to the Will and Willie Show, on the San Francisco Air America Radio affiliate KQKE (The Quake). You can stream or podcast, apparently.

I've been moving slowly, but playing a bunch of music (though my endurance is crap at this stage). I bring my guitar to the White House every day, and have serenaded the tourists on occasion, in addition to playing my newest song to the fasters, which was written just last week and is called Hunger is Power. There's a video that Mary shot of me singing it along with the Code Pink chorus earlier this week, which I hope to get my hands upon shortly. Democracy Now has it, but I don't know that they've aired it. And Scott Galindez from Truthout also filmed me doing it yesterday.

The lyrics:

Ask me why I'm fasting
Ask me why I care
Ask yourself, why don't you
How long till you get here

We know war is murder
We know war is wrong
C'mon you've got the spirit
You've known it all along

THERE'S POWER IN HUNGER
AND HUNGER IS POWER
WE'RE GROWING STRONGER
STRONGER EVERY HOUR

Ask me why I'm starving
Why I choose to shrink
With my sisters and my brothers
A raging sea of pink

Get in touch with Gandhi
Can you imagine peace
Watch us bring this war machine
Right down to its knees

THERE'S POWER IN HUNGER
AND HUNGER IS POWER
WE'RE GROWING STRONGER
STRONGER EVERY HOUR

You can't intimidate us
With your big police
Your permits and your handcuffs
Are just part of war's disease

So ask me why I'm fasting
Ask me why I care
And ask yourself another time
How long till you get here

THERE'S POWER IN HUNGER
AND HUNGER IS POWER
WE'RE GROWING STRONGER
STRONGER EVERY HOUR

There are over 4,000 people signed up world wide, and I encourage you to join with us in whatever way you can. Fast once a week. Put a paper plate in your window with a message like "Starving for Peace." Write to your elected representatives and urge them to vote to end the occupation of Iraq, or better yet, deliver the letters in person if you can. There are tons of creative ways - c'mon...you can come up with something (like donating unused frequent flyer miles to someone who wants to join us in DC, or...).