ARIZONA SPANKING INITIATIVE
Luring 'virgin voters' to polls Tucson Suffragettes hope free music, art, movies do the trick .
The Tucson Suffragettes figure that if the super-heated presidential campaign isn't enough to lure "virgin voters" to the polling places, maybe free music, movies, art and Web site photos of women in "wife-beater" undershirts with "vote" tattoos will do the trick.
Or maybe people will finally get riled up about the recent passage of the Arizona Spanking Initiative.
Haven't heard about that one? Well, you haven't been listening to community radio station KXCI, where a suffragette-sponsored radio play called "No Exit?" proposes that even if you can't tell the difference between candidates "Red Tie" and "Blue Tie," those mandatory government spankings should convince you to get involved, get informed and vote.
Marianne Dissard, local poet and one of the founding suffragettes, said she was inspired to electoral activism by the suffocating silence that followed the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. "As artists, we're all about expressing ourselves and then you had that prohibition." She said people were being encouraged to avoid criticism of government policies.
The silence in the arts community seems to have subsided.
A slew of movies and squads of rock stars have brought their art to the political front lines nationally. Their local counterparts will be massing along the artsy elbow of Fourth Avenue and Congress Street from now till Election Day.
The pierced-and-tattooed crowd recently mingled with the roller-derby girls, the Raging Grannies, the Billionaires for Bush and a couple of bands inside the Surly Wench bar on North Fourth Avenue.
The Grannies and the Billionaires took to the stage to perform song parodies that included a rousing paean to our vice president by the Billionaires: "Dick Cheney is the man we love. Dick Cheney really cares. He spends his life in service to our nation's billionaires."
On the sidewalk, the Jugglers for Justice juggled while volunteers manned a voter-registration table in front of the Wench and down the street at Che's Lounge.
Business was not brisk, said Janice Bailey of the Arizona Leadership Institute, the non-partisan outfit that provided voter signup. "Most everybody seemed registered already." But she said it was a good chance for voter education about where to vote early and how to request a mail-in ballot.
Bailey said she has better luck in her door-to-door canvassing. "I'm out there on an average evening knocking on 70 doors, and I'll run across four or five who will admit to being virgin voters. There's no stigma, so I just invite them to the ball."
Yes, the ball. This drive to bring the Downtown arts community into the electoral realm will culminate Election Night with a "Virgin Voters Ball," complete with a king and queen. Entry will be free to anyone with an "I voted" sticker.
Linda White, political director for Pima County Republicans, said she's found a lot of interest in this election among young people, from the college Republicans who were manning the phone banks Friday to high school students who earn credit in their government classes for doing the same thing.
She's hoping free food also works, and they'll be handing it out on the UA Mall today before the football game as they sign up voters.
Bailey's group, meanwhile, will "scare up the vote" on Halloween, donning costumes to go trick-or-treating for voters, making sure everyone has the information needed to get to the polling places.
The Suffragettes, and even the Billionaires for Bush, are officially non-partisan. As Joyce Kelly of Billionaires explains it, that national group's non-profit status precludes partisan action by its Tucson wing. "We're not legally allowed to tell anyone who to vote for or who not to vote for. All we do is tell people how wonderful Bush is for the top 1 percent and how awful Kerry would be."
Most people get it, she said, though she's run into a few angry Democrats and pleased Republicans. "You have to tap 'em on the shoulder and get em to slow down and think," she said.
Getting people to think is also the aim of Drew Burk, author of the radio play, whose script so far doesn't pick a favorite. As its announcer says: "We have some candidates. They're guys, they're white and they're old. One wears a red tie and one wears a blue tie." The play is deliberately absurd, but it has a moral: It is very important to vote, because not voting is how that spanking initiative got passed. Now bend over.
......... ARIZONA DAILY STAR , 11 September , 2004
