Strange how so many groups with good messages did not take the opportunity to come to Tampa this summer – Food Not Bombs certainly benefited greatly from the hordes of under-stimulated press that descended on West Florida from all over the world. In case you missed them, here’s some highlights:
Just one of a slew of good pieces by Tampa Bay Times, and my favorite quote:
Exactly how much food do they need?
They don’t know.
How many people are they expecting to feed?
They don’t know that, either.
How can they be sure they’ll have enough?
“It’s like magic somehow,” said Keith McHenry, who helped start the organization in 1980.
I mean, just like every area of Florida, the different cities are coming up with different ways to try to make the homeless feel as unwelcome as possible in their cities.
Some fair play by local free rag, Creative Loafing:
Food Not Bombs has held their annual gatherings in a variety of places across the country and the world where they feel injustices are being committed. One of their main concentrations is homeless advocacy and while they will be in Tampa in part to protest the Republican Party’s platform, the city was also chosen in response to what the group feels is unfair treatment of the homeless by the city.
WUSF turned out to be another pretty good local press source, check out their video:
Keith McHenry, the co-founder of Food Not Bombs, said he chose Tampa not just because the Republican National Convention is in town, but also because of Florida’s strict anti-homeless laws.
Local radio station WMNF was with us from the start:
“Because the Republican party in Florida is really largely responsible for these anti-homeless laws; although the Democrats share their blame too.”
The Gainesville Sun talks to members of FNB 352:
Ian Smith, a member of Gainesville Food Not Bombs, came to Friday’s event and planned to help hand out food in Tampa. He said he hoped to “nurture the resistance.”
“It’s just a moral obligation to speak my mind,” he said. “Whether it falls on deaf ears, at least I tried.”
“Seriously, every speaker that came up, I wanted to drop the banner on”
The Boston Phoenix’s video reviews A27 in a straightforward way:
The story today is where the fuck are the protestors?
Free Speech Radio News interviews us on their podcast:
Another group is proposing a much more radical idea: it’s what they call a “Really, Really Free Market,” as part of the Food Not Bombs World Gathering…
I’m pretty sure I have just experienced the most disproportionate reaction to a protest in a supposedly democratic society ever, at least since labor organizer Mother Jones faced off all by herself with one hundred members of the National Guard around a century ago.
Still more updates to come out of the Food Not Bombs World Gathering!