Cinco de Mayo Week of Action
Julia Peterson of American University SSDP in Washington, DC
We got the Cinco de Mayo Mexican flag memorial idea when another student activist organization made a flag memorial on campus. A group of students supporting Palestine put up flags to commemorate the lives lost during Israel's siege on the Gaza Strip. The siege sounded horrible on the news, but seeing the loss of life laid out in front of you on the way to and from class everyday hit you on a different level. I found myself researching more about the conflict and the US's role in it; they got me emotionally invested in the outcome.
Adopting the flag memorial idea was a way to expose the magnitude of violence in Mexico occurring because of our drug policies. It can be frustrating trying to communicate the extent of the damage our drug policies cause domestically and internationally because the connection is indirect and takes a leap of understanding. We dedicated a meeting to coming up with messages for signs pointing out that what the news calls drug-related violence in Mexico is really prohibition-related violence.
Then we delegated responsibilities; someone ordered the Mexican flags, someone sent in a request to Student Activities to use the quad, and others volunteered to make signs and set up 72 flags on the quad representing the 7,200 lives lost to Mexican drug-cartel violence since 2008.
When we were putting up flags and a student walked by asking "What can I do?" we knew it was a success well worth the small amount of work.
Since SSDP is an organization of chapters across the country all working towards the same goal, posting our memorial idea on SSDPtalk was the next logical step. It was awesome watching the idea catch on and evolve as more minds got involved.
The national staff played a key role in solidifying a day of action on Cinco de Mayo and provided resources like flyers, press releases, an online petition, and contacting LEAP speakers to speak on campuses. Associate Director, Micah Daigle, held a really useful conference call going over the best ways to contact the media and talking points. Given the close proximity to finals and how busy we all were, the help of the national staff was really instrumental in making it a success. I think the Cinco de Mayo day of action was an important tool for us to inform our campuses that this cause is about much more than regaining the right to use drugs, it's about saving lives and protecting basic human rights at home and abroad.
-Julia Peterson, American University
