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The Past, Present &
Future of Freedom 

Grant County Peace Coalition
on the 4th of July Parades 2006 / 2007

Grant County Peace Coalition has been a participant in the Grant County 4th of July Parade since 2004 - the year following Shock & Awe and the start of the Bush / Cheney, and thus, tragically, America's criminal War of Aggression against Iraq.

GCPC's first entry into the parade, with what might be called heartlfelt but generic peace signs and an ad-hoc assembly of pro-peace advocates, was mostly greeted by extensive boos, hisses, and pro war frenzy.  The glaring absence of any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq had been fully confirmed but had not yet penetrated an American consciousness relentlessly bombarded by Faux News and an administration that ruthlessly manipulated intelligence - and the minds of it's citizens - to instill the false belief that Sadaam Hussein was the progenitor of 911 and a clear and present danger to the very existence of the United States.

Last year however, in the 2006 parade, GCPC's determination to speak truth to power found more focused expression in it's theme of "Hostages of US Policy" as well as a remakable positive shift in the reaction of the parade observers that paralled the consensus of all polling and national observations - that the American public had shifted essentially from 2/3 or more support for the war against Iraq to 2/3 or more against it.  This was further confirmed by the results of the November 2006 elections - a referendum on the war which placed Democrats in ascendancy in the US House and Senate.

Last year about a dozen GCPC members donned bright orange Abu Ghraib style jumpsuits and black hoods to symbolize truth, peace, privacy, due process, the environment, and other human and constitutionally protected rights as hostages of a president and a policy apparently beyond the reach of accountability and failed Congresses directed by the most crass political advantage who refused to fulfill their mandate to exercise checks and balances.

This year, GCPC will again present Grant County with a focused and uncompro- mising portrayal of the present state of affairs and the the action necessary to insure that Freedom will remain the primary value and underpinning of our society in the future - both locally and nationally - as it has been in the past.

This program features Donna Stevens and Jesse Franklin-Owens, both longtime GCPC participants, and footage of the Grant County Peace Coalition contingent in the 2006 Grant County 4th of July Parade.  We discuss The Past, Present & Future of Freedom and GCPC's efforts to challenge our government and fellow citizens to recognize and respond to the increasing threat to our independence and civil liberties by a President that should be impeached and removed from office, and Congresses led successively by Republicans and Democrats that have refused to perform their sworn duties of defending the Constitution of the United States.

Click here to watch or here to listen.  
Note that only the interview portion is included in the audio version.

• War of Aggression
• Murder of Civilians
• Murder or Ill-treatment of Prisoners of War
• Plunder of Private Property
• Wanton Destruction of Cities