Swap Meet and Car Show held today at Bonanzaville, West Fargo, ND, U.S.A.

The incentive I had to tour this auto show was that as a youngster I knew the original owner of the 1908 Maxwell, above.

Also one of my uncles was an original owner of a 50s  Hudson, very similar to the 1956 model below.  

Feel free to add your own vintage autos in the comment section.

more below:

This evening's theme: Path to Peace: Ethical Responsibilities in a Global Consumer

After hearing Kathy Kelly this Friday evening I have added her to my short list, well very short list, <10, of super-great speakers I've heard over a lifetime. Should you have the opportunity, I would highly recommend.

Disclosure:All of this from memory alone... it's not a verbatim transcript... any mistakes are mine.

Kathy Kelly, a co-coordinator with Voices in the Wilderness (VitW), spoke in Fargo, ND at Presentation Sisters Convent. Since 2003 Presentation Peace Studies has been a project of the sisters.

In 1988 Kathy Kelly  was sentenced to one year in prison for planting corn on nuclear missile silo sites. Kelly served nine months of the sentence in Lexington KY maximum security prison.

In the spring of 2004, she served three months at Pekin federal prison for crossing the line as part of an ongoing effort to close an army military combat training school at Fort Benning, GA.

This evening, Kathy Kelly started out by explaining "... nuns give no visible sign of a desire to accumulate personal wealth." She believes  Pacifism... has to do with living simply, with reverence... (for life)

The only other group of women living together without wealth as we enter 2006 is the concentration of women in US prisons. Currently one fourth of the world's prisoners are in US prisons.

While in prison, due to her bunk location Kathy overheard numerous phone calls from women in prison.

Most still care about their families. They keep trying to talk with family members at home but are not usually successful.

[... discussed supply needs of prisoners ]

82% of the women are in for non-violent crime, one fourth are sentenced to more than 8 years. The men's facility was designed for 800, it now has 1153, so the men are overcrowded. Their median sentence was 27 years.

If military might(as seen in the Iraq war) is right then why aren't we seeing a better life for our people. (The latest projected estimates of...) the cost of the Iraq war is 2 Trillion... who is working on preventing a crash landing...

[...discussed end of oil, use of solar, wind.]

I've been to Iraq 26 times. I was in _?__ city with the Iraq Peace Team when the 2003 war commenced. As local authorities left the city looters were working their way towards that part of the city. The US Marines arrived before the looters, which I was thankful for.

We (Peace Team members) brought water and dates to the troups. So we all had a picnic... I went to visit with a marine who was sitting on the top of his tank reading a book. I said, What are you reading? He replies, Heart of Darkness, for the thirteen time. [author Joseph Conrad]

The marines were curious, and said,"Tell us your side of the story." Many of the marines hoped to come back to Iraq to help with the reconstruction.

More after the fold;

We don't have to reinvent the wheel here folks. Why not make use of 50 years of research on Strategic Nonviolent Conflict Strategy

198 METHODS OF NONVIOLENT PROTEST AND PERSUASION,Here for pdf

It's obvious that we can wait no longer for our political process to work.

I have no doubt in my mind that the strategies contained in the links below will return traditional democracy to our republic. Got doubts? See the end of this diary for links to some of history's well known nonviolent conflicts.

...the ruler can only rule with the consent of the cooperation of the people... since the people provide the ruler with the sources of his power, then the people can also withdraw their consent to be ruled by withholding the sources of the power they collectively provide to the regime... -Robert L. Helvey

more after the fold