[Peace-discuss] My letter to Obama re Israel/Gaza on Dec 28, 2008

Mon Dec 29 02:04:37 CST 2008

Well Mort, I thought you would never ask. J   

I pretty much have given up on the federal and state governments as they
currently exist with respect to significant substantive change in foreign,
military, or domestic policies.  I also do not see the possibilities of the
public initiating any change since, despite claims to the contrary, I do not
think that many - let alone most - are ready to  do what it would take to
force change.  The deterioration of the current foreign situation around the
world and domestic economic situation has pushed more and more to the point
where they may be more open to revolution or forcing change; but they have
not reached the tipping point yet.  My plan is to hope that things get worse
so as to radicalize the population who will find themselves facing increased
downward mobility and a decreasing quality of life, less security or
expectations of regularity or avoidance of crises, less privacy and more
demands for conformity, etc.  It is my hope that they will then be ready to
take action (although it is unpredictable if the outcome will be a good
radical progressive one or a bad regressive reversion into fascism, racism,
and paranoia).

Until that happens, I have been turning my thoughts and energies into
investigating the possibilities of creating alternative communities with
alternative institutions, such as micro banks, homesteading and
shopsteading, the use of sweat equity, etc. as mechanisms for empowering
individuals and allowing them to not only have some control over their lives
but produce long term structures and processes which work for them over the
long haul and allow them to retain their dignity in the process.  In the 60s
and 70s Champaign-Urbana had the beginnings of a nascent alternative
economic community with some of the alternative institutions surviving long
after the disappearance of that  alternative community as traditional
capitalist establishments who had their starts as coops; and there have been
a number of successful experiments utilizing micro banks, homesteading and
shopsteading, sweat equity, collective and/or co-operatative networks,
alternative medical and legal services, etc. which can serve as role models
which give some  guides as to what works and what does not, how one goes
about implementing or instituting such things, what obstacles and dangers
one might encounter, etc. 

I have not worked things out in any detail; but I am taking your question
seriously and am trying to offer a serious response as far as I have figured
things out for myself.  It is still a plan in progress; and it does not
involve petitioning, letter writing, or picketing.  The only serious and
potentially deadly roadblock to what I am interested in is that alternative
communities in this world cannot be isolated from or independent of the
mainstream economy and community which form its system environment; and that
external environment can prove detrimental to the establishment and survival
of alternative institutions.  However, this is an area that needs to be
explored in more detail to see if there are work-arounds to this situation.

From: Morton K. Brussel [mailto:brussel at illinois.edu] 
Sent: Sunday, December 28, 2008 11:31 PM
To: LAURIE SOLOMON
Cc: peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net
Subject: Re: [Peace-discuss] My letter to Obama re Israel/Gaza on Dec 28,
2008

So, what are you doing? 

--mkb

On Dec 28, 2008, at 8:01 PM, LAURIE SOLOMON wrote:

Hmmmm!  A big hmmmmmmm!  He has done nothing in the past or the present to
persuade the current administration or the democratically controlled
chambers of Congress to rein in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan or the
provocative behaviors of the US government toward other countries like North
Korea, Pakistan, Cuba, Venezuela, and others or to rein in other client
states who have been undertaking actions against other places at our behest
and bidding; so why do you think he will listen to your petitions and demand
that Israel be reined in - let alone open up Gaza to journalists, UN
officials, and humanitarian relief workers on a significant scale (not just
open up selected locations to a chosen few when and if the Israelis decide
that they get a benefit from  doing so much the same way that the US troops
in Iraq controlled information via embedding selected journalists and others
with specific military units?  I also doubt that he will seek the
elimination of settlements on the West Bank or elsewhere, although he might
ask the Israelis to shut down some of the less significant small settlements
that are most visible to outsiders so as to give the appearance of closing
down settlements and/or to slow down the creation of new settlements.

However, you and others obviously get pleasure out of writing letters and
petitioning politicians in the traditional symbolic but generally
ineffective way that the establishment officially sanctions as the
democratic way under representative democracy along with elections.  Thus, I
will not try to dissuade you or others from such ritualistic genuflecting
before the alter of representative democracy; but I must ask how those
practices have been working out for you?  Have you ever elected members of
the majority party in either of the chambers of Congress who have gotten you
the significant changes you had hoped for; have you gotten elected a
presidential candidate in the past 8 elections who has represented your
interests and supported your positions to the same  extent that the
opposition has supported the establishment interests; or have you obtained
via petitions and letters significant policy changes in important areas over
the years in for instance health care or environmental policies, in foreign
policies, in criminal justice and national security policies, or in
educational policies?  In light of all the letter writing and petitioning
efforts, are the poor any better off, has downward mobility amongst the
middle and working classes decreased or stopped, have fraudulent and
predatory corporate practices been controlled  to any significant extent so
as not to freely prey upon the individuals who make up the poor, working
class, and middle class communities; or has deregulation actually stimulated
competition rather than furthered  corporate take-overs and mergers so as to
result in less competition?

Isn't it time we stop engaging in pro forma exercises and actually start
undertaking forceful actions and demanding in depth positive responses from
elected officials and political parties as well as civil service bureaucrats
under the pain of disruptive sanctions against those who supposedly claim us
as their core supporters and political base?  Just wondering when it will be
time to stop pro forma petitions and ritualized letter writying and how we
will know that that time has come?

From: peace-discuss-bounces at lists.chambana.net
[mailto:peace-discuss-bounces at lists.chambana.net] On Behalf Of Jenifer
Cartwright
Sent: Sunday, December 28, 2008 2:56 PM
To: Peace- Discuss
Subject: [Peace-discuss] My letter to Obama re Israel/Gaza on Dec 28, 2008

You can send yr own msg after you click on
<http://change.gov/page/s/yourvision> http://change.gov/page/s/yourvision 

Here's what I sent to Prez Elect Obama just now:

President Elect Obama,
The US MUST rein in Israel. or cut off $upport if it continues its
aggression. Israel's behavior twds Gaza and the Palestinians is
unacceptable, and the current attacks -- which have been condemned by most
of the world -- are not to be permitted. Start talks w/ Hamas as well., of
course, and listen to their demands. Reinstate the cease fire immediately.
Eliminate the settlements on the West Bank asap. Restore full humanitarian
aid to Gaza immediately.
 --Jenifer Cartwright 

You can send yr own msg after you click on 

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