[Peace-discuss] Letter to the Editor

[jencart]

Paul,

Sorry.......I was being sarcastic.  I didn't mean that you should actually write that in response to her letter, only that it's the type of response she'd be able to understand, even if she still didn't "get" it.    

I think I caught some of that DVD on Ch 6. Infiltration, reverse psychology. total manipulation.  Brrrr.  It was a real mind fuck.

Fear.  I'm afraid for the world and for all the people living in places where their lives mean so little to those who don't want anything from them or their country, or to those who do want something from them or their country..... I don't think we can undo the damage that the Bush admin has done to the world and our country, and they're not even close to being done yet.  Think endless wars of aggression and domination.  Think 1-3 Supreme Court nominees..... Think moribund media.... Can you imagine what Rush and O'Reilly would do w/ the Valerie Plaime story if Rove were a Democrat??

However, in a more positive vein, I recently heard someone say that peace activists should focus on smaller winnable issues, rather than taking on e g the World Bank.  I'm reminded of a woman who spoke @ our first Teach In -- her group had fought big pharma to get generic medicine for a group of Africans (sorry, I forget the details) and won! 

I think we have a lot of heroes in AWARE working on winnable issues -- Urbana's rejection of the Patriot Act, Liveable Wage, no tasers, Citizens Police Review, just to name a few.  And we aren't done yet either.

Jenifer

Jenifer
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jen,

i recently viewed a video by gnn (guerilla news network -  get it from randall cotton) about brainwashing and at the  end of it a guy said something very interesting: the only 
way we can possibly hope to contend with the powerful system  of propaganda we live in is to infect those around us with  our own, more powerful, information viruses. "Democracy",  "freedom", "liberty" ... these are ideas that i'm not even  sure i believe in. but they can serve to ameliorate the 
suffering of our world if we use these ideas and 
indoctrinate others with them. it's a war of propaganda. i'm  not sure attacking others would serve as useful a purpose in  this context. her letter was not offensive. i appreciate and  totally agree with you though.

regarding fear. you ask if we should fear our government ...  i think that, yes, there is good reason to. i actually lose 
sleep at night for my fear. but essentially this fear is 
nothing more than the fear of pain and death. as long as we  fear these things, we will fear the world around us. more  important, though, is that people fear the greatness inside  of them for the same reasons: fear of persecution and pain.  how can we encourage people to be the heroes they are?

this is done, i believe, by joining with them and showing 
them our fear and our courage.

..:: paul

---- Original message ----
>Date: Fri, 08 Jul 2005 18:04:55 EDT
>From: "jencart" <jencart at mycidco.com>  
>Subject: Re:[Peace-discuss] Letter to the Editor  
>To: pmking at uiuc.edu
>
>Great letter, Paul, and of course she won't get it -- too  many big words, too many big ideas..... Maybe she'd get it  if you said, I'm a vet, I get to wear a uniform  Bush was  AWOL, a deserter -- he's the one who dishonors our 
servicemen and women by wearing a military uniform and  prancing around on the deck of a ship he'd never have the  guts to actually serve on.....
>
>Re fear:  Isn't it rational to be VERY afraid of our 
government and its agenda?  They're the scariest men on the  planet. There's lots more to fear than fear itself, it seem  to me.  
>
>Jenifer C
>------------------------------------------------------------ --
>[fellow citizens - below is the l