Word of Mouth, Inc., A Newspaper - VOLUME III - 1985
Dedicated to the Population Majority
An International Publication Based in Jacksonville, Florida, USA

Advertising at The White House!?

If billboards do their work, making so much money for advertising -- and for the advertisers -- it is because they prove the psychological truth that the subconscious mind takes in and reacts to everything it sees. That a powerful visual experience imbeds itself within, and acts upon the mind -- even as the one who "sees" is unaware of the action.

It is known as subliminal conditioning. It's what makes cults "work" -- and why it is difficult to break away from harmful cults - or even from harmful habits.

None of these things were taken into consideration when a very powerful advertising campaign was launched in Washington, District of Columbia, more than three years ago. The marketing director was one of the growing number of women in the business of public relations. Except that she was hired to do a huge campaign, -- with no prior experience! She got the job due to connections. So, she was offered only the experience of the job itself --with no salary.

She took the position anyway, knowing that its ultimate worth could not be measured in dollars; that its true reward would be in proving herself, opening doors only dreamed of by most of us. She experienced running an effective national campaign, and saw her work spread rapidly to a campaign of international repute. These were some of her immediate rewards.

Can you imagine the immense satisfaction of any woman, entering a new field -- and proving, almost immediately, that her work could circle the globe and affect the minds of all who saw it? Wouldn't she be offered jobs from the finest advertising agencies in the world at a tremendous salary, after such a success?

You would think so, wouldn't you?

Instead, this marvelous woman - this talent for affecting the minds of people from the entire globe -- was forced, for awhile, to eat from the refuse containers of fast food restaurants near the White House. She says she still would, however, the containers have been adjusted so that only beings the size of rats can eat their contents! And rats do eat there now, but humans don't.

Why, you may ask, is this horrible 'story of rats' being fed to the readers of a positive news only publication? Because something very positive happened when the refuse containers were opened to rats and closed to humans. Because that part of the story has no substitute that wouldn't change its meaning.

When the refuse containers were closed to this noble woman, -- the people she worked for became aware of her plight; they knew the value of her work, and could now see clearly her need for some material reward for it. And they came forth and fed her. A few of them even began to offer her a small compensation in a regular payment of money. (A pittance for one who had done so much, but better than nothing.)

But, by this time, perhaps it was too late. Perhaps her mind had been punished for too long to remain "balanced." Because earlier, she told that she would still eat from the refuse containers, except that they were only open to vermin now. The acceptance of a condition that no mentally balanced person would attest to, surely.

Perhaps -- as others who have been so tortured by "the System" -- perhaps she had reduced herself to taking drugs. Ah, that would explain a lot of things. Many others, beaten by the system take that route to escape the real or imagined injustices done to them. We see the national illness of alcoholism -- the legal drug costing all of us in many ways. But with her, it was obviously not alcohol. And, obviously too, her injustices had not been imagined.

She explained, with eyes piercingly directed into my own, that since she began her job she had had to learn how to "live on the street." She had, in her own obviously desperate condition, "met many helpless starving people," and she had taken their "lead" at survival.

"But why," I asked, "would you still eat from the refuse containers?"

"Only because they were the only means for so many to eat, and now they are closed to people and open only to rats I would eat from them, because for over two years they were the only food I could get, along with so many others who are now starving. while I am fed. Yes, the rats and I are fed, but many people are begging for food and can get none. They are dying in our nation's capital, because no one feeds them. And the people that could feed them choose to buy things that kill still other people!"

The keg had been pried open. The truth will out.

Concepcion is the name of this woman. Her name means "the beginning of creation or something"-- and she lives to conceive the idea of the real possibility of peace on earth through disarmament.

That is the thrust of her advertising campaign, conducted with billboards that she has painted herself, and displayed in Lafayette Park, across from the White House for nearly four years now - a one-woman campaign for peace.

She has been written about in much of the foreign press. However, in this country, she has been given primarily "bad press." She does blight the area around our nation's capital with homemade signs depicting her own ideas, some of which are offensive views of the current administration.

But, this is America, and the rights to freedom were her birthright.

She has had to fight for freedom, literally. She wears a helmet of sorts, covered by wigs, to shield her head from would be attackers. Not the crazy's that the CIA protects our politicians from. But from the CIA themselves, and the United States Marines! These are the ones who have beaten her in the past.

Eating garbage is one of the "lighter" things she has had to survive in her fight for freedom.

Constantly in court on a multitude of charges. Constantly harassed by the military mindset that currently dominates so many -- who seem to think they have the right to physically subdue the minds and bodies of those that disagree with them.

The picture above is the most violent pose of Concepcion ever captured in a photograph. Not violent, you say? Her entire stand and fight is against violence, and she does it all as gently and as peacefully as this picture portrays her. She objects to those of the CIA who sometimes pose as "peace freaks" in the park. She objects because they also pose as "druggies" - as spent minds and bodies, obviously "not well" - as they try to lend an insane image to the fight for peace.

How can it be that we live in a society where some would have us consider it insane to be a fanatic for peace -- and sane to continue an arms race? Is it that the public has not digested the fact that we (humankind) have had enough "power" to completely destroy ourselves since the mid 1950's? Will we have enough power -- intelligence used -- to stop spending money on weapons while people starve on the streets of our "free" country? On the very steps of our beautiful capitol?

Are we "free" from the threat of attack? Or must we continue to defend ourselves?

Are the Russians "free" from the possibility of us attacking them? If we are not a first strike country today, then we are a no strike country. For unless we intend to annihilate the Soviet Union before they can do it to us, there is absolutely no point in building even one more bullet, let alone an MX. If there is nuclear war -- there is no more civilization as we know it today. That is the simple truth. And imagining the possible holocaust can only serve to fuel the fear that perpetuates its possibility. Some of us believe that we are safe from that possibility, saying: "The men who lead us aren't that insane -- they know that they can't have a nuclear war." Then, if that is true, why are we continuing to prepare for one?

You see, you must either believe that we are going to defend ourselves against the undefensible reality of utter destruction that a nuclear war would bring -- or you believe that this country has the right to destroy the rest of Gods creation. Isn't that the position from which we continue to justify our need for "defense"??? Our right to defense? Today, there is no defense! Not in military destructive power.

Einstein said in 1946: "Mankind cannot prepare for and prevent war simultaneously."

Einstein also said "We shall require a substantially new manner of thinking if mankind is to survive."

But, it is Concepcion that has borne in my mind the total truth of his statements -- and the realization of the utter determination on the part of humankind that will be needed to achieve peace in my lifetime. Not "breaks" between destruction. I want to live to see World Peace. And I'm one of the majority who believe it to be possible, and ask that those who have put themselves in power both politically and economically, to begin working toward that end.

We need to work to become the democracy today that we fought the last noble war for. We see now very easily, that there is no nobility in war, and ask if there ever was. We must believe there was, because of all the lives we have seen given to the various "causes" of war.

And yes, there was purpose in those wars of the past. They were fought with the belief that they were the way to achieve liberty. They were fought with the belief that they were the way to achieve freedom from oppression. They were fought with the belief that there would be no more war.

They were noble wars.

Today, a non-violent war goes on, in the park across from the White House. By a woman who is there, day in, day out, fighting a truly noble war -- by herself. You see, she lives on the streets, and sets up her non-violent war's battle stations in the park each day. She eats food given to her by the people from around the world who agree with her, and who would themselves, if able, exhibit the same courage for peace. She takes money from those who see that she deserves more than she can ever be paid for the job she has taken on.

I once asked Concepcion a question, and I think her answer simply and truthfully answers any question about human behavior. (Either by its use as an answer, or by seeing that if it is not the answer then the question itself indicates a wrong behavior.)

She stood, looking straight into my eyes I had a camera with me, and yet I could not bring myself to photograph her. She was bruised and scarred from a recent beating - her face was swollen in places. And as she described the way it happened, I fought back tears. And when she stopped talking -- quietly describing one of her experiences on the road to peace -- I asked her, "Concepcion, what makes you stay?" And she answered: "God."