[Peace-discuss] 9/11 film actions

Thu Jun 17 23:06:05 CDT 2004

I really enjoy and regard highly your comments. However, this one to me seems to be disjointed flailing. If your point is that AWARE has some unrecognized right, moral or otherwise, to take over private property at their discretion, I think you are full of crap. If that’s not your point, I don’t know what is. 

Of course, since I own my home, and consider it extremely private property, I may be just plain warped.  But then I am in the tiny minority, perhaps of only one, that finds killing vastly more offensive than torture. With so much of the former going on, outrage at the latter seems to me to be wasted. So I must truly be warped. Accepting that condition, I have to ask: What do we do when skinheads exercise their moral right to private property and smash the AWARE table at Boardman’s? Say, “Its your right, brother! Be quick before the just plain trespassers arrive and we have to cheerfully make room. Let’s go appropriate some popcorn. Can you imagine, there are people who are stupid enough to pay to get in? They don’t know shit about morals!” 

"C. G. Estabrook" <galliher at alexia.lis.uiuc.edu> wrote:Do you all recall that scene in the film Dr. Strangelove in which Peter
Sellers as the British officer has finally got the codes that will recall
the bombers that will produce the nuclear holocaust and is desperate to
find change so that he can operate a pay phone (I'll explain that, for you
younger people) to call Washington? He asks an American soldier (Keenan
Wynn, if I remember correctly) to shoot into a Coke machine so he can get
the money. The soldier looks at him in horror: "That's private property!"
he says.

There's a peculiar deference offered to private property in matters
political in this country. Mr. Boardman might not like it if we promote
an opponent to a man who, having voted for aggressive war (for which we
hanged people at Nuremberg), has the blood of 50,000 Iraqis on his hands.
Similarly, the local public radio station can't in good conscience allow
us to mention that our political leaders are war criminals who should be
incarcerated -- because it's not a local issue...

During the Green party campaign two years ago, I was surprised (shocked,
really) to find the number of people who thought we were doing something
impolite in talking about a political campaign that was neither Republican
not Democrat. After all, they took care of politics -- and there were
rules, after all. We got two sorts of outraged response to our soliciting:
(1) "You can't do that here! This is public property!"; and (2) "You can't
do that here! This is private property!"

In fact, of course, the political system is the private property of the
two wings of the property party in this country -- so much so that they
can often appear "very reasonable, even generous" in letting outsiders
occasionally participate as "guests" -- so long as they realize that they
are using the owners' place of business on sufferance, and on the
condition that nothing change.

Regards, Carl

On Thu, 17 Jun 2004, Regina Cassidy wrote:

> It seemed to me also that Boardman was being very reasonable, even
> generous. I suggest that AWARE respect the limits he requests in
> using his place of business to get the message across.
> 
> Perhaps he wouldn't even mind Carl leafletting outside the theater off
> his property (not that he needs permission).
> 
> Wouldn't it be great if some fence-sitters or even right-wingers
> actually attended the movie and changed their minds? We need to let
> them get in the theater without feeling intimidated. At that point,
> seeing the movie is more important than getting literature into
> people's hands (they may even seek it out afterwards).
> 
> Gina
> 
> >>> Chuck Minne 06/17/04 5:58 PM >>>
> 
> I have no idea if that is the case or not. I know you are Mr.
> Boardman's guest. I thought he was very understanding and generous. I
> know that he expressed that he was not taking a position and wanted to
> represent all sides. As far as I know it was represented to him that
> you wanted to use his lobby to promote AWARE and he said OK. I think
> he would consider representing AWARE and also a certain political
> candidate two entirely separate matters, and would feel somewhat
> betrayed or blindsided when you put out someone's campaign literature.
> I would.
> 
> I simply think that as guests you should get his approval * nobody
> likes that kind of surprise. Johnson may have helped him or he may be
> seeking Johnson's assistance on some matter, thus this could be a
> sensitive issue for him. I'm sure that in the spirit of his neutrality
> and openness that he might want to then also display some Johnson
> literature, and maybe anybody else. Or just say "no" to any candidate
> literature. Maybe he'll say, "go ahead, I hate the sob." I don't have
> a clue, I just know how I think a guest should act.
> 
> I think a lot of business would have told you to go to hell, and that
> he has been very generous and he should be treated with every
> courtesy. I do not think you would want to be considered a "give us an
> inch and we will take a mile" type of organization. Again, just my 2¢.
> 
> 
> "C. G. Estabrook" wrote:If that's the
> case, Chuck, we should relocate to the street and leaflet the
> attendees from public property. I don't we can acquiesce in having
> commercial enterprises (like WILL and the Art Theater) condition what
> we say. Regards, Carl
> 
> 
> On Wed, 16 Jun 2004, Chuck Minne wrote:
> 
> > I would suggest you get permission before putting any candidate 
> > literature on the table. After all, you would be using Mr. Boradman's
> > theater to oppose the incumbent, and he might be very uncomfortable
> > with that. I would be, if I were him. Just my 2¢. 

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