News from the
Center
GAG
Continues to Send a Message . . . and
Laughter
By Sally Van Vleck
The Guerrilla Action Group (GAG) was formed for the purpose of using art and humor as a means of challenging a culture based on money, overconsumption and greed. We performed our skit on campaign finance reform, "The Best Government Money Can Buy" for the NMEAC Environmentalistof the Year Awards on November 21, held in the Park Place Dome. The audience (definitely preaching to the choir here) seemed to enjoy our depiction of lobbyists: Spectrum Byte (media corporations), Gene Splicer (agribusiness), Vitamin Flintheart (medical insurance industry), and Deadeye Laserbeam (military industry). They cheered wildly at the end when the candidate, Mr. Dough, decided to severe his puppet strings with the lobbyists and side with Granny Dee and the people. We had a great time developing and performing this skit, and wish that true campaign finance reform would render it obsolete.On National Buy Nothing Day about a dozen GAGers took the cross-town bus out to the Mall to demonstrate against overconsumption. We stood out on South Airport Road and held up signs for passing motorists, trying to convince them to forego shopping for one day. Our "Burma Shave" style (each sign with part of the message, read in sequence for those of you too young to remember) signs read: Eliminate Your - Shopping Stress - Drive by the Mall - Live More with Less - Buy - Nothing - Day. Other signs included "More Stuff?" and "Remember Me?" with a picture of the Earth. Some have questioned what the purpose is of asking people not to shop for one day. This is a symbolic event which was created by the group, Adbusters, in order to bring attention to the problem of overconsumption. It's a chance to examine our spending practices and question our need for more "stuff" at the expense of the Earth's dwindling resources. We've already been talking about plans for next year's Buy Nothing Day.
GAG meets on the second and fourth Tuesdays each month at the church on 5th and Oak Streets in Traverse City. We start with a potluck/discussion at 6:00 PM. New members are welcome. We are currently in the process of developing some new skits.
After 10 years in downtown Traverse City,we moved the Earth Day celebration to the Shielding Tree Nature Center in 2000. Planning is already underway for next year's activities. The committee has been going through a process of evaluation of last year's event in order to make Earth Day 2001 the best one yet!We will again encourage participants to dress as another species for a processional parade followed by the Council of All Beings. We are planning more costume/mask making workshops this year prior to Earth Day (see page 5).
We have set our next three meeting dates as follows:
• January 18th,
• February 15th
• March 15that the Governmental Center Cafeteria in Traverse City at 7:00 PM.
If you have a little time and would like to help please call the Neahtawanta Center at 223-7315.