USA Projects

I am requesting $2,800 to support the creation of a new body of work, a post card project called 'Stop the War'. There will be 2 to 3 different postcards with strong, humorous, eye-catching images created to build awareness and opposition to the endless American wars. The funds will cover creating, printing and the initial costs of distribution.

This is part of my project One Among Many, a multiple series of post cards with images that express, tongue-in-cheek, our collective frustration when faced with events that we feel powerless to change or have influence on. 'Stop the War' is important to me because I believe collectively we do have an impact.

First the image I have in mind is photographed, manipulated then printed into cards. These we pre-address to the President, Secretary of State, Senators, and Members of Congress. We then table the cards at various popular locations and get the public to sign them, add their home addresses and usually write a message. I have found many people want to do something, don't like the wars, the destruction and killings being carried out in our names, but feel too busy or over whelmed to do anything about it. They are grateful when someone takes the time to stand in the cold, and offer them cool images that reinforce how many of us feel. It seems to be easy to forget exactly how much damage we are doing to our economy, our young people, and to the innocent victims of our wars.

The post cards, because of their humor and image, I believe will have an impact. In previous mailing projects we have seen results. If an official is bombarded with cards that are clearly from many different people, towns and cities in their State, they notice. In previous experience other activist groups across the State added an idea I was working on to their out reach efforts and all of us together had an impact on legislation. Our collective voice against the wars has been very quiet. We happily click on our home computers for issues we care about, however I don't think it gets the same kind of awareness that actual signed cards with a unified message gets.

The USA spends 54% of its budget on the military. (This figure includes veteran’s benefits, the extra money asked for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, military research and development, and part of the national debt brought about by our excess spending on the military and wars). There have been from over 160,000 to 606,000 deaths in Iraq since 2003, depending on the poll you use. A Gallup poll from August 2010 said 75% of Americans say ’NO’ to renewed missions in Iraq. A 2010 Pew polls say 60% of Americans oppose the war in Afghanistan.

It is for this 60-75% of Americans that I want to make these cards. We have a voice, one that can be heard, if we stand together.  I realize that postcards seem like a drop in a bucket, but together many voices are heard and I believe are effective.