The main instigator of the nuclear protest/peace rally was local very cool girl Carrie Russell, who was inspired by BYO Records, which had recently sponsored a nationwide protest against war. Throughout the day we hung out, wrote anti-war messages on the pavement in chalk, planted white flowers and generally freaked out the downtown Appleton adults. I went with my good friend Carrie (not Russell, a different Carrie, but just as very cool) who made t-shirts for us. Faded completely now, on the back she wrote part of the lyrics from John Lennon’s “Imagine.” That picture below is me in May ‘86 wearing the peace shirt, which I still have.

Two local punk bands performed: Mission of Mercy from Green Bay and Bad Culture from Neenah (though the newspaper article misnamed them “Bed Culture” – ha!). Old man Clifford Johnson had this to say about the band, “Maybe the music tells a story. I don’t know. I can’t understand it.” Now get off my damn lawn.

We were so gloriously naïve, passionate and sincere. The fear in the world unfortunately hasn’t gotten better in 30 years, quite the opposite, but hopefully there are people who will continue to show up, speak out and try to foster change.

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