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Dear George: I am sure that you remember Burma Shave signs - those old jokes and stories you used to read in a series of signs along the old blue highways. I just looked one up. He tried Those signs were brought to mind the other day when I saw a guy standing along the street with an obviously homemade sign. Alone, and evidently unsponsored, he had decided to inform us, who passed by, the various ways we were going to hell and what we could do about it. I wondered what motivated this handsome man with a placid face to spend his Saturday displaying this unwelcome message. Thinking about signs along a roadway, made me think of those weathered old Burma shave signs I had seen growing up. - waiting day after day in the hot Texas sun for a new audience for their old messages. Suddenly, I thought of people standing by the roadway with sequential signs constituting a haiku. The prospect of a short poem stretching on for blocks captured my imagination. I thought "As readers became more sophisticated haikus could even turn corners!" Having a missionary spirit like the young man I had observed, I thought that my fellow haikuzies (as I have come to call my imaginary playmates holding those signs) and I would display peace haikus. I have butchered this haiku by Penny Harter to illustrate my thought. The war Perhaps more appropriate for a Seattle venue is this one I found in the Haiku Times: Stiff It occurred to me that a haikuzie peace demonstration would be the antithesis of a regular demonstration. Instead of massing together on some street corner to show our strength, we would disperse to increase our vulnerability. Instead of informing our audience of certain facts, we would hold signs enigmatic in themselves and merely suggestive in their totality. Following the 9/11 disaster a couple of friends of mine, Lisa and Katie Kaufman went out into the streets with a sign which read: "A lot of things have happened lately, would you like to talk about them?" I decided to appropriate that sentiment for the reverse side of the haiku signs. Instead of fighting for peace our task would be merely to enjoy it. Instead of spreading information, we would gather it. Next, the fund raising possibilities around this strange exercise occurred to me. Instead of asking people to sponsor you to run or to walk and by implication improve yourself in some way, you could ask them to sponsor you to express peace and, perhaps meet a new friend. It's strange how I've always had such a faith in the coercive power of reason. I have imagined that the world could be changed by the exploitation of some fact or a more comprehensive analysis of a number of facts. I have blamed my inability to convince anyone about practically anything on my own inadequacies. But it occurs to me that I have seldom been convinced by anyone either. I have yielded to argument but I practically always have had the suspicion that some important fact, presently unknown to me, would reverse the judgment or that I had missed a sleight-of-hand in my opponent's reasoning. I do not deny the importance of informing people or thinking intelligently about the world. But, if you are trying to convince someone of something, the most likely argument you are likely to win is "I like you" or "You are a good and intelligent person". Each person may embody peace in a different way and, if we listen close enough to each of them, the world might change. Best wishes, PS. Then again you might emulate a U.S. form: Hear or Something wicked
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