[Peace-discuss] Fw: Thank you for your support

[Jim Buell]

At 11:56 AM 1/29/2003 -0800, Ricky Baldwin wrote:
>Sounds like some anti-war emails are in order from
>those of us who haven't sent them yet!
>
>Thanks again to everyone who spoke Monday night, or
>worked on the resolution, and especially to Danielle
>for introducing it.  This is the debate we were hoping
>for.  Now let's get it through!
>
>Ricky

It's frustrating but not surprising that elements of the community are 
organizing against the resolution, in advance of next Monday's Council 
meeting. And as Ricky  notes, this is the debate we were hoping for. 
Danielle, council members, and peace activists who have helped get us to 
this point, thanks once again for your superb efforts. Ditto for the fine 
folks on campus who put on yesterday's teach-in, then capped the day with a 
victory on the resolution before the ISG. Matt & all, you folks are amazing.

I'd like to toss out a couple suggestions for the tough dialoguing ahead. 
For one, Mark Leff remarked yesterday during his teach-in talk that beyond 
even protesting the horrors of the looming Iraq bloodbath, our movement 
needs to focus on the "Bush Doctrine" of preemptive war as a global 
catastrophe in the making. The clearer we can make it that our opposition 
doesn't stem from any love of Saddam Hussein or disrespect for this country 
or individuals serving in the military, but from our conviction as to the 
utter wrongness of engaging in unprovoked carnage aimed at remaking the 
whole world in the corporate-boardroom image, the better ordinary Joes will 
be able to appreciate where we're coming from and the harder it will be for 
foes to marginalize us. Second, the particular pro-war faction that's 
mobilizing locally seems to be coming out of the American Legion and VFW 
halls;  military veterans who are opposed to the war would therefore seem 
to be especially important voices to have raised in this debate. I'm 
thinking for instance of the fine article in last Sunday's News-Gazette on 
Doug Rokke - I really didn't expect to see anything that positive from an 
N-G columnist like Tom Kacich. Anti-war activists with military experience 
would, I think, be especially important to hear from at next Monday's 
council meeting.

peace,
Jim