[Peace-political] Summary?, Peace Rally Tonight

[Peter Miller]

Hi-

In case you didn't hear, a peace rally has been scheduled for the U of I 
quad (Union end) at 6 p.m. this evening (Thursday, September 20).  The 
timing is appropriate with the US sending more of our military to the 
mideast.  Tell everyone you know!

Does anyone who attended this morning's meeting with Tim Johnson have time 
to summarize the meeting for those who weren't there?  I'm afraid I don't 
have time right now.

I'll fill you in on one thing, though:  At around noon, I received a call 
from Matt Bisbee, letting me know that a Peoria TV station invited Tim to a 
public forum on the trajedy, scheduled for some time next week.  (Can 
anyone at U of I try to pull off a public forum at Foellinger, to which TJ 
and other public representatives can be invited?  It sounds like he needs, 
and may even be seeking, the invitation.)

Matt also asked this question:  If the US has a choice between killing 
civilians and putting the US at risk of terrorist attack, which would I 
choose?  I think this is a question that many people are asking, and he 
didn't pose it as an attack against us or as a representation of Johnson's 
position.  I explained that I didn't think it was a fair question and that 
we should find a way to keep the US safe and not kill civilians.  I drew an 
analogy to racial profiling, and pointed out that to make some people in 
the US feel safer, some police forces "pre-emptively prosecute" people 
based on their skin color.  We oppose that.  I said it would be a mistake 
for the US to take a similar policy to a global scale, but with much more 
grave results.  i.e. it would be a mistake to wage war against a nation and 
kill civilians ("collateral damage") for the acts of a small group, in 
order to make people in the US feel safer.  To prosecute and kill people 
without due process of the law is anti-American, I argued.

Obviously, these are not tight arguments, but he got my point and thanked 
me for the discussion, as he himself is still trying to figure out how to 
respond to the attacks.

Thanks,
Peter