[Peace-discuss] Tires Plus: Expect meanness, respond with kindness or disengageme nt

[Alfred Kagan]

I don't think we should put lots of energy into boycotting Tires 
Plus, but people aught to know what is going on.  Putting something 
on leaflets is not time-consuming.  I am especially concerned about 
this because of our recent discussions on how to combat racism in our 
community. Jim might be right that they didn't target Prof. Kakoma, 
but this is the first time someone has been blocked, and it turns out 
to be an African. I can't dismiss this so easily.


At 12:16 PM -0600 2/17/03, Kranich, Kimberlie wrote:
>Dear All,
>
>As the war mongering continues and we reach more and more people and start
>to build critic mass during our peaceful demonstrations on the sidewalks of
>N. Prospect/Marketview Streets, we should expect more people to act
>aggressively towards us and we should come prepared.  If we prepare using
>the principals of nonviolence, we can respond nonviolently in words and
>actions.
>
>In addition to the van incident, one of us was shoved yesterday.  A man in a
>truck drove by and flipped us off as he drove down our line.  He also
>swerved his truck towards us and one of us reacted by lunging forward in an
>act of defiance.  This lunging forward ticked the truck driver off and he
>got out of his car and yelled, "Did you touch my truck!"  Swear words were
>exchanged between both parties and the truck driver shoved the person who
>had lunged.  I rushed over to see what had happened and had my phone out and
>said that I was going to call the police.  The driver got back in his car.
>I asked our demonstrator if he was OK and he said he was despite being
>shoved. I observed two other trucks swerving menacingly towards us
>yesterday.
>
>I will call the police Sergeant that Ricky, Jeff, Al and I met with awhile
>back to report this incident (I didn't get the truck driver's license plate
>because I was too concerned about preventing a fight) and to ask for some
>protection.
>
>We have been demonstrating for peace (the latest round sicne we stared
>demonstrating in Ocotber 2001) for the past 18 or 19 weeks now.  We
>ourselves have not been violent except for verbally on a couple of
>occasions, incuding Saturday. We cannot control how people react to us, but
>80% of the responses to us are positive. 80%!
>
>It appears to me that we should prepare now to act peacefully to acts of
>aggression towards us.  We should watch out for each other has we stand in
>line. We should make sure that we look out for people who might park in
>Tires Plus and send them to Lowe's immediately. 
>
>I disagree with putting any energy towards Tires Plus.  The person who
>parked in front of the van did so out of mean aggression. The van was moved
>without incident.  Victory!
>
>Why must we focus on the meanness and respond to it? The man who drove his
>truck up on the sidewalk and almost hit one of us works at Tires Plus.  He
>was cited for reckless driving.  What more do we want? Do we want to spend
>our energies fighting or do we want to build a peace movement?
>
>Perhaps it is time to form a core group of people who watch out for us in
>our line every Saturday. I suggest that these people be trained in how to
>absorb conflict rather than reacting to it.  People who can calm a situation
>down, get license plate numbers, etc. 
>
>Some of us are attending a training workshop next week on nonviolent civil
>disobedience.  These same principals will be taught there. I attended a
>similar training last summer in preparation for my arrest in St. Louis.  I
>suggest that AWARE add a section each meeting to its meeting to discuss the
>principals of nonviolence and how to prepare oneself mentally and physically
>to not respond to violent words or deeds. It is a challenge, but it will
>benefit us all.
>
>How can we build a lasting peace movement if we ourselves do not know what
>inner peace is? If we ourselves cannot control our tongues and bodies in the
>face of violence and aggression, how can we expect nations to do the same?
>
>I am not judging anyone by asking these questions.  I myself struggle with
>what I described above.
>
>I would like AWARE to add a section at each meeting on how to act
>nonviolently at the P4P demos, and I suggest that similar to the section on
>"news," that we add a section on nonviolent readings to the meeting.
>
>I will start by contributing the following poem by Joan Cavanagh as found in
>Petra Kelly's book, "Fighting For Hope":
>
>I am a dangerous woman
>Carrying neither bombs nor babies,
>Flowers nor molotov cocktails.
>I confound all your reason, theory, realism
>Because I will neither lie in your ditches
>Nor dig your ditches for you
>Nor join in your armed struggle
>For bigger and better ditches.
>I will not walk with you nor walk for you,
>I won't live with you
>And I won't die for you
>But neither will I try to deny you
>The right to live and die.
>I will not share one square foot of this earth with you
>While you are hell-bent on destruction,
>But neither will I deny that we are of the same earth,
>Born of the same Mother.
>I will not permit
>You to bind my life to yours
>But I will tell you that our lives
>Are bound together
>And I will demand
>That you live as though you understand
>This one salient fact.
>
>I am a dangerous woman
>Because I will tell you, Sir,
>Whether you are concerned or not
>Masculinity has made of this world a living hell,
>A furnace burning away at hope, love, faith and justice.
>A furnace of My Lais, Hiroshimas, Dachaus.
>A furnace which burns the babies
>You tell us we must make.
>Masculinity made femininity,
>Made the eyes of our women go dark and cold
>Sent our sons -- yes, Sir, our sons --
>To war
>Made our children go hungry
>Made mothers whores
>Made our bombs, our bullets, our "food for peace,"
>Or definitive solutions and first-strike policies.
>Masculinity broke women and men on its knee,
>Took away our futures,
>made our hopes, fears, thoughts, and good instincts
>'Irrelevant to the larger struggle,'"
>And made human survival beyond the year 2000
>An open question.
>
>I am a dangerous woman
>because I will say all this
>Lying neither to you nor with you
>Neither trusting nor despising you.
>I am a dangerous woman because
>I won't give up or shut up
>Or put up with your version of reality.
>You have conspired to sell my life quite cheaply
>And I am especially dangerous
>Because I will never forgive nor forget
>Or ever conspire
>To sell your life in return.
>
>Kimberlie
>
>
>
>
>
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-- 


Al Kagan
African Studies Bibliographer and Professor of Library Administration
Africana Unit, Room 328
University of Illinois Library
1408 W. Gregory Drive
Urbana, IL 61801, USA

tel. 217-333-6519
fax. 217-333-2214
e-mail. akagan at uiuc.edu