[Peace-discuss] Uncle Noam on the BBC

Thu Nov 6 15:12:02 CST 2008

I think we've left it up to our so-called leaders long enough.  I think we have to realize that we are not children, not helpless babes in cradles, whose only hope to scream and cry if we do not get what we want.  It's time we took some responsibility for turning things around.  That is not letting anyone "off the hook".  Just the opposite.  It's about being forthright and assertive about what we expect - or rather demand - out of our elected representatives.

Karen is right.  There is a helluva lot that Obama said he would do that we do not want him to do.  What we want him to live up to is the hopes and dreams and aspirations of the people who elected him, regardless of his repeated explanations that he was not about that.  The analogy to Kennedy is perfect.  That is, we don't aim for Obama to become Kennedy; we aim for Obama's supporters to push forward with the raised expectations and the energy that carried Kennedy's supporters (some of them) into the movements that as Chomsky says raised the moral standards of this country beyond what they had been for years.

Bob asks the crucial question: how to get that message to Obama.  I think it's a safe bet that he and his advisers read the newspapers and watch tv.  That's one way.  There are also these petitions and letters that Just Foreign Policy and J Street, and probably others, are organizing.  Barbara is right: there is no time to lose.  That doesn't mean we drag out the Impeach Obama signs.  Just the opposite.  That makes it too easy to marginalize our points.  We lead with our strong suit: we talk about real problems and real solutions - what's wrong with leaving any troops in Iraq, what's wrong with expanding the war in 'AfPak', emphasize the value of "diplomacy" and more importantly peace and social justice.

It's up to us to get that stuff out.  Unless we prefer to sit by while it all goes to hell so we can say I told you so.

 Ricky

"Only those who do nothing make no mistakes." - Peter Kropotkin

________________________________
From: LAURIE SOLOMON <LAURIE at ADVANCENET.NET>
To: peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net
Sent: Thursday, November 6, 2008 12:36:29 PM
Subject: FW: [Peace-discuss] Uncle Noam on the BBC

Subject:RE: [Peace-discuss]
Uncle Noam on the BBC

>I think the Chomsky point is that it is a great opening
moment for the People and for organizers of people, a point also made by Naomi
Klein (on >October 29) who said, "Obama is a Centrist. It is up to us
to move the Center."  Even were he to be better than our fears, he
cannot fail to disappoint >because the size of the mess he steps into. 

While I agree that this may be an opening and that if you
move the center Obama and other Centrists will probably follow, I think that
the above statements and statements like this tend to get Obama and his
administration as well as the Centrists in and out of Congress off the hook by
shifting responsibility for anything which does not change in a
progressive/reformist/liberal/leftist direction to the People rather than
placing the responsibility where it belongs on Obama and his supporters and
Administration.  I think the people who put their faith and hope in Obama
as the new opportunity for change should hold his feet to the fire for each and
every thing – big or little – that he does not do or does differently from how
he represented himself throughout the campaign, allowing for no excuses,
rationalizations for failures to do so.  

From:peace-discuss-bounces at lists.chambana.net [mailto:peace-discuss-bounces at lists.chambana.net] On Behalf Of Barbara kessel
Sent: Thursday, November 06, 2008 11:42 AM
To: kmedina at illinois.edu
Cc: peace discuss
Subject: Re: [Peace-discuss] Uncle Noam on the BBC

I think the Chomsky point is that it is a great opening
moment for the People and for organizers of people, a point also made by Naomi
Klein (on October 29) who said, "Obama is a Centrist. It is up to us to
move the Center."  Even were he to be better than our fears, he
cannot fail to disappoint because the size of the mess he steps into. 
      We
need now to "stretch the map" of anti-war protestors. Just because
64% of the voters said that their top issue was the economy and 10% said it was
the war does not mean that these issues remain unrelated in all the minds of
that 64%. True Anecdote: 84 year old father of a friend of mine, who is a
veteran of WWII, a stone racist, always voted Republican, cast his first
Democratic vote for Obama saying to his grown children, "I am sick and
tired of seeing the government throwing our money away on useless and
unnecessary wars."  Barbara Kessel
On Thu, Nov 6, 2008 at 11:12 AM, Karen Medina <kmedina at illinois.edu> wrote:
>The Prophet [Noam] says: what matters is what people do
with their
disappointment when Obama fails
to meet their expectations.
I think the best thing Obama can do is hire the best cabinet
possible to do the real
work and he be the negotiator between the groups. He's smart enough and there
is
some evidence that he just might find the humility to do this.

He should take on one thing himself: universal healthcare would be a good
choice.

My worst fear is that he appoints only centrists and the right to his cabinet.
He has
a mandate to move left, but he may not be able to recognize it. He has a
tendency
to overcompensate to the right.

-karen medina
_______________________________________________
Peace-discuss mailing list
Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net
http://lists.chambana.net/cgi-bin/listinfo/peace-discuss

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.chambana.net/mailman/archive/peace-discuss/attachments/20081106/fe793116/attachment.htm