Death threat rec'd for holding sign, "IMPEACH FOR PEACE"

as progressive as Portland is, there are still a few wingnuts and Bush supporters around. Don't let this put a damper on your attitude or good work--keep it up!!

Hopefully, it will go up shortly, but you could access it using my name in the search windowl

I updated the closing paragraph...

For the dudes that think they are tough-guys, like our brain-addled, fake cowboy, pathologically mendacious, egotistical, amoral puppet of a President... you really should choose better role models. If you are so intolerant of others expressing their disgust with the current administration and its adverse impact on the USA and the world, that you feel you have a right to interfere with their Constitutional rights...you should really spare us your authoritarian tendencies and JUST MOVE!

Good for you!
While there may be a "perfect" response to a given situation, I'm not perfect and just do the best I can. I think of our most recent and maybe the greatest example of "not standing up" and what it led to, all the time (Germany)...or perhaps some may say our most recent is right now.

The other thing that came to mind while I thought of your altercation:
In religions, "converts" are some of the most ardent members/activists.
Some of the head doctors out there might be able to pitch in about this.
I think people who speak out violently are an "opportunity". They care very deeply. They also would care very deeply if they found out and believed the goverment was a bunch of crooks. That is energy that could be directed in a positive way to our benefit. Passion is passion and I think perhaps there is little space between the two poles (negative and positive).

Peace.

I like your thinking that one might be able to "convert" the truly passionate, with a little reason. That was what I meant by saying that maybe I could have had a better response for the guy. I should have just walked to his window and asked how I was endangering his children, and/or if he thinks Bush has done ANYTHING to reduce terrorism in the world. However, I don't need to change people, passionate or not, at the risk of getting shot.

I will repost a thing I did last June on the issue of intimidation as a vehicle of suppression of dissent, but you can also find it using "Bully Culture" in the search window.

Come voice your passion on Sunday, 3/18 at the South Park Blocks, from 12p - 5p, and at Terry Schrunk Plaza on Monday, mid-day on, to commemorate the 4th Anniversary of Bush's illegal, imperialistic war on the Middle East.

Best,
Styve

working the front lines is tough.....you know it
keep up the good fight... i send my encouragement!

i find that talk is cheap and many people ignorantly shoot their mouths off, with no plans on backing up what they say!

keep one eye open ..... but i personally think he was probably a shit talker!

steady the coarse ...see ya sunday on the streets!

Thanks so much for being out there. That is really scary to get a death threat. I have been out there and been yelled at with insults: "Get a life, Hippie!" which I thought was really funny after retiring from teaching Migrant and Mexican kids for twenty years. Another taunt after I told someone my brother in law died in Vietnam was "Too bad you didn't die too". It can take the wind out of your sails.

Thanks again for being on the bridge. Me and my neighbor women have often done little demos on the bridges. Any public act is heroic. You never know when your sign will be the one that turns the tide against war in the brain of a passing motorist. In Solidarity and Thanks.

I am glad that it is up, though not in a timely fashion... The link is on the right bar, or here... http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2007/03/355690.shtml.

Styve: you're one of the best of us. We all start out authoritarian. Hopefully the bully who terrorized you will change, but that is not our task. You did a right thing, even if not "the" right thing.

I see where you are coming from. Its to bad there are people like that, but unfortunately there always will be. But I dont agree with you calling the cops. They are part of the problem :). They are as likely to kill you as that guy was if he was serious.

We do not start out authoritarian; authoritarianism is bred and Styve is a perfect example of that. Calling the police because someone *says* something is an authoritarian act. It is not an act protecting speech; it is in fact the opposite. Now I don't have a problem with wasting police time on petty complaints so I have no problem with the action taken. But let's be clear, no one here would cheer a pro-Bush or pro-occupation person calling the police about something an anti-Bush or anti-occupation yells at them.

And you've made a big difference, not just here, but in San Francisco, too. I got the idea to carry my own sign (I don't do it everyday, or in a very regular fashion, but believe me I get out there and it must have been seen by thousands of people so far) from you. I listen to the Thom Hartmann show (which is now being carried on Air America) and he made mention that "people are out on the streets carrying signs" to illustrate how much things are changing and people are taking matters into their own hands. Thom lives in Portland, and I wouldn't be suprised if it was you he had in mind.

It takes a lot of nerve to go out on a limb and do something out of the ordinary, but trust me, the energy is out there -- what you're doing is being a catalyst that sends ripples out there, creating positive change in ways you'd never imagine.

The guy who threatened you must know this, and on some level that threatens him. You had every right to call the cops. Threatening someone with bodily harm is the definition of assult.

No one is helping matters by spreading incorrect information. Yes, it's great to speak out and to inspire others to do so but this is not a case of assault.

>> Threatening someone with bodily harm is the definition of assult.

No, the definition of assault requires "physical injury".

See ORS 163.160, 163.165, 163.175, 163.185
 http://www.leg.state.or.us/ors/163.html