[Peace-discuss] Response to Criticism of AWARE?

[Ricky Baldwin]

Well, here's mine, for better or worse.  I sent it
right away on Friday.  I'm sorry that I won't be there
tonight for the discussion, which I think is
important.

-Ricky

Dear Editor:

John Bambenek’s column (8-26-05) manages to get just
about everything backwards.  But space requirements
limit response to a couple of his slurs.

First, Obama invited AWARE inside after building
security blocked our entry.  We did not barge in.  And
if it’s rude to tell the truth, so be it.  

Our intention was certainly never to disrupt, but
merely to inform his audience (and constituents) about
his position on this illegal, immoral and stupid war. 
That is, he wants it to continue.  Any disruption was
of the senator’s own making: he became irritated
because we were quietly handing out information on his
record.

Obama’s aide told me, “Iraq is not a civilized
country.”  That’s apparently why US troops have to
stay, attracting terrorists like ants to sugar,
whether the Iraqis want us or not.  Obama told us his
focus was “getting elected,” not principles.

Not that many in Congress are any better.  Congressman
Tim Johnson has prevaricated from the beginning on the
war, which he supported but has been too chicken to
own up.  Now he refuses to say what “secret evidence”
he supposedly saw that supposedly decided his vote for
mass murder.

And Senator Durbin, if the facts matter, never called
US troops “Nazis” as Bambenek says.  What he said was,
echoing Amnesty International and other human rights
monitors, an FBI report on the US-run Guantanamo
prison resembled reports on Nazi camps.  The FBI
report described gruesome “torture techniques” at
Guantanamo, which Amnesty calls “the gulag of our
times.”  The shame is that Durbin apologized for
telling the truth.

Readers who want to learn more can listen to
“Democracy Now!” weekdays at 4pm on WEFT 90.1 FM,
“News from Neptune” Saturdays at 10am on WEFT, or
visit AWARE on the web at www.anti-war.net.

Sincerely,
Ricky Baldwin
Urbana resident
328-3037


--- "C. G. Estabrook" <galliher at uiuc.edu> wrote:

> [My response to the column in today's DI that David
> brought to
> our attention.  Comments welcome. --CGE]
> 
> 
> Editor, Daily Illini:
> 
> Several things are wrong with an August 26 column's
> account of
> Sen. Barack Obama's recent "town meeting" (in fact,
> a PR
> exercise).  I'll mention two:
> 
> First, I don't see how the writer can find the
> actions of the
> local group AWARE ("Anti-War Anti-Racism Effort")
> "disruptive
> and rude" -- unless he believes, with the national
> commander
> of the American Legion, that all "public protests"
> should end.
> For those who do believe in the First Amendment,
> AWARE's
> experience at the rally was unsettling.  Serious
> efforts were
> made to prevent their access to public space with
> anti-war
> signs and flyers, until the senator, displaying
> public
> magnanimity, invited them into his meeting.  But the
> authors
> of the Bill of Rights did not think First Amendment
> rights
> should depend on the permission of even a senator.
> 
> The second error is more serious -- the column omits
> any
> discussion of the war.  But then, so did the
> senator, for the
> most part: he took just one (gentle) question on the
> matter,
> and never mentioned torture, Iran, the Downing
> Street minutes,
> Israel, impeachment, imprisonment without trial by
> the US
> government, etc.  Even more surprising was what he
> did say: 
> he “hopes US troops could begin to leave Iraq next
> year, [but]
> ... Iraq would simply collapse if we left now." 
> That's the
> administration's position, and it ignores the fact
> that a
> majority of the Iraqis want us to leave now,
> understandably
> enough. 
> 
> Sen. Obama revealed himself as a liberal enabler of
> the death
> and destruction the US has brought to Iraq -- like
> most of the
> Democratic party.  His position contrasts sharply
> with that
> expressed by Cindy Sheehan, who points out that one
> is either
> for the ending of the war and the withdrawal of the
> US from
> Iraq, or for its continuance.  
> 
> C. G. ESTABROOK
> Visiting Scholar, UIUC
> 109 Observatory [MC-190]
> 901 South Mathews Avenue
> Urbana IL 61801
> 244.4105; 359.9466
> > _______________________________________________
> Peace-discuss mailing list
> Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net
>
http://lists.chambana.net/cgi-bin/listinfo/peace-discuss
> 


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