[Peace-discuss] Re: Last Night's Meeting

[Neil Parthun]

All --
 
        I haven't been to AWARE meetings in a while.  Coursework + job takes
up most of my free time.  I have read a lot of the e-mails going back and
forth within the group because where there are good events & I can make the
time, I do my best to be of some help fighting the military industrial
complex here in rural Champaign-Urbana.
 
        All that being said, I feel I should chime in on the way that I see
AWARE -- as a random member of the community -- and moreso the entire
activist community in general on this campus.  My apologies if any of my
language is a bit coarse, but I write the way I feel.
 
        There is too much territorial pissing going on with some groups.
>From my time in Peace Action, I remember times where it was pulling teeth to
get some activist groups behind X, Y or Z action.  Everybody wanted the
glory.  (BTW, Jeff, the impromptu anti-war march the day after the war was
originally led by Reichel, Kate and a handful of others with much
consternation from the PRC security.  So please, give credit where credit is
due)
 
        So much of AWARE's efforts have gone to anti-war actions that I've
rarely seen a real committed anti-racist action take place -- one that AWARE
spearheaded, that is.  While I see the clear relationship between racism and
war-hawk behavior, it saddens me that AWARE doesn't seem to be living up to
half of its name.
 
        All of the racism talk is linked to the recent infighting with Al,
Carl, et. al.  Now, I don't know what went on at the meetings, so I'm not
going to comment.  I am going to comment on the numerous e-mails that I've
read from Al, Carl, et al. and Carl's now infamous guest commentary to the
News-Gazette.
 
        I agree with Carl's original point that he had -- to lessen the
degree on which we take Obama to task for his non-committment to getting
US/coalition soldiers out of Iraq due to his race seems quite non-sensical.
It is, in my eyes, us merely being paralyzed by "white guilt" and then not
doing anything.  I think a very thoughtful statement articulated as to what
the position said would be very effective.  If people would believe that
AWARE would be picking on Obama simply because he is black, then we must
direct them to AWARE's similar actions against Timmy J. and Dick Durbin.
Through our actions we can show that we are not racist against Sen. Obama,
which are much more effective than so much literary prose on the subject.
 
        While I do believe it is effective to organize with various groups,
no group is going to agree 100% on everything.  It just does not happen.  It
might be effective to build relationships with groups on certain issues &
then reciprocally tapping each other for support when events regarding that
issue come up.  Then neither group would be duty bound for a near-blind
allegiance.
 
        But the original point has morphed into bickering and in-fighting.
I can't comment on that but I will just plead that there is a lot more to
focus on, gang.  Sure, we may not all agree on methods but damnit, we've got
a raging, incompetent, ignorant, money hungry greedy bastard in the Oval
Office...racist police pulling over minorities more than whites...

        If we're to let words neutralize our effectiveness & drastically
divide our group then we stand no chance against the greedy monsters that
thirst for power that we all oppose.
 
Buy the ticket. Take the ride.
            Neil
 
All the world's a stage and everything else is Vaudeville.
[alan moore]
 
We've had our problems too. It's your basic unwillingness to get on within
the company. You don't seem to want to face up to any real responsibility or
to be your own boss. We've offered you promotion time and time again and
each time you've turned us down. And it's no good blaming the drop in work
standards upon bad management, either...We've had a string of embezzlers,
frauds, liars and lunatics making a string of catastrophic decisions. This
is plain fact. But who elected them? It was you! While I'll admit that
anyone can make a mistake once -- to go on making the same lethal errors
century after century seems to me nothing short of deliberate. You have
encouraged these malicious incompetents. You have accepted without questions
their senseless orders. You could have stopped them. All you had to say was
"No." You have no spine. You have no pride. You are no longer an asset to
the company.
[alan moore, v for vendetta]
 
Neil Parthun || Senior, History Education || e-mail: parthun at uiuc.edu || my
writing: http://lennybrucefan.tripod.com <http://lennybrucefan.tripod.com/>

 
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