On Saturday morning, October 6, Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT) celebrated our ongoing community solidarity and shared successes, as we reveled in the sunny, supportive, citizen-packed streets of Moscow, so close but so far away from the same cold, dark, and lonely streets that we together defended from the regional and global ravages of ExxonMobil tar sands megaloads. Participating in the 2012 University of Idaho Homecoming Parade, aptly named The Brave and Bold, our grassroots collective of activists carried our five-by-fifteen-foot group banner and tar sands and fracking protest signs from Rosauers to Seventh Street, through a cheering crowd lining Main Street in downtown Moscow. Along the way, we handed out organic candy, our new issue-oriented WIRT brochure, and Dana Lyons concert flyers to our fellow city residents. At Friendship Square, the entry announcer introduced us by proclaiming half of our mission statement (perhaps by reading our banner): “Wild Idaho Rising Tide confronts the root causes of climate change.”
After walking earlier in the parade with the Latah County Democrats, several melodious members of the Moscow Volunteer Peace Band doubled back and joined us for the last few blocks and bolstered our entourage to over a dozen walkers with rambunctious tunes. Congratulations and hearty thanks to everyone in our community who contributed to our effective demonstration, especially Meghan, who printed our 100 handouts and supplied our candy for the parade-side kids, Ellen, Jo, and Meghan, who valiantly wielded our heavy sail of a WIRT banner for a mile through the winds of change, Lynn, who displayed our campaign messages on protest signs, Helen and Pat, who created and distributed educational material, and Fritz, Jeanne, and the Peace Band, who gracefully emboldened our fossil fuel resisters with their music.
Wild Idaho Rising Tide 