[Peace-discuss] Flyer for July4/7 - draft
C. G. Estabrook
galliher at uiuc.edu
Wed Jul 4 10:57:47 CDT 2007
You think that the flyer is too long, but that specific references to
Iran and the "defense industry" should have been added?
What do you think should have said specifically about working for peace?
--CGE
Jenifer Cartwright wrote:
> I have no basic problem w/ the flyer -- other than the typos :-) -- but
> I think it'd work better if the last paragraph were put in positive
> terms -- the "Work for Peace," instead of the "Stop War" approach.
>
> I do think that it's length makes it a pretty safe bet that only "choir
> members" will read it all the way thru anyway!
>
> Jenifer
>
> */"C. G. Estabrook" <galliher at uiuc.edu>/* wrote:
>
> >> [Here's a draft for the text of a flyer on the theme
> >> of the July 4
> >> celebration, "America Salutes Free Enterprise,"
> >> which it was suggested
> >> might also be used for the July 7 Main Event. I've
> >> attached a slightly
> >> formatted version. --CGE]
> >>
> >>
> >> AMERICA SALUTES FREE ENTERPRISE -- BUT NOT CORPORATE
> >> CONTROL AND WAR
> >>
> >> "...the issue of peace and people dying for no
> >> reason is not a matter
> >> of 'right or left' but 'right and wrong' ... I
> >> believe that partisan
> >> politics should be left to the wayside when hundreds
> >> of thousands of
> >> people are dying for a war, based on lies, that is
> >> supported by
> >> Democrats and Republicans alike ... if we don’t find
> >> alternatives to
> >> this corrupt 'two' party system our Representative
> >> Republic will die and
> >> be replaced with what we are rapidly descending into
> >> with nary a check
> >> or balance: a fascist corporate wasteland."
> >> --Cindy Sheehan, 28 May 2007
> >>
> >> For more than fifty years Champaign County has held
> >> a "Freedom
> >> Celebration" -- sponsored by local businesses -- on
> >> the Fourth of July.
> >> The theme of this year's celebration is, "America
> >> Salutes Free
> >> Enterprise," and it is dedicated to "celebrating the
> >> contributions that
> >> Champaign County businesses have had on our local
> >> economy."
> >>
> >> We at AWARE -- the Anti-War, Anti-Racism Effort, an
> >> independent
> >> Champaign County peace group -- believe that the
> >> anniversary of the
> >> Declaration of Independence is an appropriate time
> >> for all of us
> >> Americans to think about our country's traditions
> >> and about the idea of
> >> free enterprise.
> >>
> >> "Enterprise" means work -- it refers to our active
> >> engagement in
> >> projects, the exercise of our talents of head and
> >> hands. Obviously we
> >> all want to work freely -- we all want to engage in
> >> free enterprise.
> >> Our society should be a free association of people
> >> who use their talents
> >> to produce what they need and want.
> >>
> >> As Americans we hold that all people are created
> >> equal, "that they are
> >> endowed by their creator with certain unalienable
> >> rights, that among
> >> these are life, liberty and the pursuit of
> >> happiness." Our rights to
> >> life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness mean
> >> that our enterprise
> >> should be free -- we should not be compelled to use
> >> our talents for
> >> purposes not our own. The lives of "the hireling
> >> and slave" are
> >> condemned in "The Star-Spangled Banner."
> >>
> >> But we find as we grow up in present-day America
> >> that our enterprise is
> >> not free. In order to live we have to sell our work
> >> in an economy
> >> directed by ever-larger corporations, and they are
> >> only buying some
> >> things -- not necessarily what we want to do with
> >> our talents.
> >>
> >> In the early days of the Untied States, corporations
> >> were granted
> >> charters by the states only if they were formed for
> >> a beneficial
> >> purpose, and then only for a limited time. But by
> >> the beginning of the
> >> 20th-century, corporations maneuvered themselves
> >> into being "legal
> >> persons," with all the rights that the Bill of
> >> Rights granted to
> >> individuals.
> >>
> >> This corporate economy now dominates the world and
> >> directs the policies
> >> of the United States. Our vast system of corporate
> >> media, public
> >> relations, and marketing -- the world's largest by
> >> far -- pretends that
> >> the interests of the few who dominate the corporate
> >> economy are
> >> essentially the same as those of the majority (we're
> >> all "persons,"
> >> aren't we?), but in fact they're contradictory:the
> >> corporate economy has
> >> to dominate the enterprise of the majority to
> >> continue to enrich itself.
> >>
> >> Democracy and the corporate economy are
> >> contradictory. Democracy means
> >> equality: "one person, one vote." But the corporate
> >> economy means
> >> inequality: power in society depends on how much
> >> money is controlled --
> >> "one dollar, one vote." A few people in control of
> >> corporations decide
> >> what should be produced and what jobs should be
> >> available.
> >>
> >> The corporate economy drives America's criminal wars
> >> and occupations in
> >> the Middle East. Both Democratic and Republican
> >> administrations demand
> >> that the US control Middle East energy resources --
> >> even thought we
> >> import very little oil from the Middle East for use
> >> in the US -- because
> >> that gives the US control over America's principal
> >> economic competitors,
> >> Europe and northeast Asia (China,South Korea and
> >> Japan).
> >>
> >> Free enterprise and peace are impossible until the
> >> the corporate economy
> >> is brought under democratic control.
> >>
> >> * * *
> >>
> >> AWARE (Anti-War Anti-Racism Effort) is a local
> >> Champaign-Urbana peace
> >> group. We meet every Sunday 5-6:30pm in the basement
> >> of the IMC (the old
> >> post office in Urbana). Visitors and new members are
> >> welcome.
> >> http://www.anti-war.net/
> >>
> >> ###
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