[Peace-discuss] questions about the 4th of July parade and entry -- next steps

[Stuart Levy]

On Tue, Jun 16, 2009 at 09:36:34AM -0500, Karen Medina wrote:
> Is there a working group for the 4th of July AWARE entry for the
> parade with the theme "The Lasting Legacy of Lincoln"?

Thank you, thank you for raising this!

Some of us signed up...

    Ron Szoke
    Joe Weber (maybe)
    Wayne Johnson
    Stuart Levy

anyone else??  Karen?

What do we need to do/decide?

Should we just try to go with last year's style of float,
with giant placards on Wayne's trailer (Wayne, I think you said
we could use that this year, is that right?)?   And would we have
walkers carrying placards too?  Deciding those things
should settle enough that we can submit an entry form.


For the Lincoln-quotes-with-illustrations (below), we need people to
dig up pictures.   And to select a subset of the quotes Carl suggested.
(Among the ones we keep, I'll insist on "Why should there not be a
patient confidence in the ultimate justice of the people?  Is there
any better or equal hope in the world?")


For the people-of-Lincoln's-time, can anyone try to digest
a few key words -- something we could put in large print on a poster --
for each person?  And collect their pictures, probably from the wikipedia
pages -- most are freely usable and high quality.  Are there other people
we'd really need to cover?



Mechanics:
   Randall explained that producing giant poster-sized pictures
   is straightforward: Kinko's on Mattis (at least) has a copier which
   will blow up a standard-size sheet of paper -- no exotic prep. needed.

   Ricky Baldwin mentioned that it only took an afternoon to put
   together the cardboard tank-aimed-at-schoolhouse float that
   was AWARE's float several years ago.  So a float could be simple.

   We could follow last year's pattern.


Message ideas on the table last I heard were:

   ** Anti-war / anti-capitalist / anti-imperialist quotes from Lincoln,
	with illustrations, sketched out nicely by Carl several weeks ago --
	included below

   ** Placards remembering people who shaped Lincoln's views 
	or from Lincoln's time who were doing things we'd like to honor.
	Ron had suggested several people, and others (Wayne?) had too.
	There are nice wikipedia articles about them, including
	pictures we can use.  E.g.

	Frederick Douglass
	    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Douglass

	    "I would unite with anybody to do right
	     and with nobody to do wrong."

	    Abolitionist and supporter of women's right to vote,
	    famous publisher and orator, 
	    believed that the Constitution could
		and should be used to fight slavery
	    Can we say something about Douglass' influence on Lincoln?

	Charles Sumner
	    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Sumner
	    A leader of the antislavery forces, US Senator,
	    one of the Radical Republicans, a champion of black rights
	    before and after the Civil War

	Elijah Lovejoy
	    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elijah_P._Lovejoy
	    Abolitionist journalist and publisher, from Alton, Illinois,
	    from Alton, Illinois.  Pro-slavery mobs several times
	    destroyed his newspaper, and in 1837 killed him.  He was 34.
	    "First casualty of the Civil War" or
	    "A martyr on the altar of American Liberty"
		 (I'm not suggesting we use the latter, but
		  http://www.altonweb.com/history/lovejoy/
		 does :)

	Lysander Spooner
	    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lysander_Spooner
	    lawyer, "individualist anarchist",
	    he was both an abolitionist and an opponent of the Civil War
	    though he had supported guerrilla actions against slaveholders
	     by slaves and sympathizers in the South.   Criticized the
	    Republicans of the time, arguing that they were not
	    aiming to end slavery but to preserve the Union by force and to
	    support the business interests behind that union.

	    A gem from the Wikipedia article:
	    "He argued that the right of states to secede derives from
	    the natural right of slaves to be free.  This argument was
	    unpopular in both the North and the South after the war began,
	    as it conflicted with the official position of both governments."

	I think other names were mentioned too -- certainly Thoreau --
	but will leave others to look into them.  I gotta get back to my day job.

   **
      and, here's Carl's collection of 

    Date: Sun, 24 May 2009 20:29:43 -0500
    From: "C. G. Estabrook" <galliher at illinois.edu>
    To: Karen Medina <kmedina67 at gmail.com>
    Subject: Re: [Peace-discuss] July 4th float -- okay, seriously...
    Cc: Peace-discuss <peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net>

    Karen Medina wrote:
    >> I have no desire to attack Lincoln.
    > I'm happy to attack Lincoln outside of the parade. Just not in it.

    I agree. The theme we're supposed to illustrate is "The Lasting Legacy of LINCOLN."

    We should therefore accent those elements of Lincoln's thought that were 
    anti-war (such as his opposition to the Mexican War) and anti-capitalist (such 
    as his opposition to wage-slavery, at least as strong as his opposition to 
    chattel slavery).

    Here's an edited version of the suggestions I made before -- quotes from Lincoln 
    & illustrative photos.  (I suggest we use a few, not all of them.)


	 THE ANTI-WAR ANTI-RACISM EFFORT REMEMBERS
	 LESSONS FROM LINCOLN ON WAR AND WORK

	 ************************

	 * "Allow the President to invade a neighboring nation whenever he shall 
    deem it necessary to repel an invasion ... and you allow him to make war at 
    pleasure.
	 [PHOTO = LIST OF COUNTRIES & DATE WE INVADED THEM (last 20 YEARS): 
    PANAMA-1989 SOMALIA-1992 HAITI-1994 SERBIA-1999 AFGHANISTAN-2001 IRAQ-2003 
    PAKISTAN-2009]

	 * "Teach all the folly of being the beginners of a war."
	 [PHOTO = BUSH'S "MISSION ACCOMPLISHED" BANNER]

	 * "Those who deny freedom to others, deserve it not for themselves"
	 [PHOTO = GITMO, ABU GHRAIB, BAGRAM, ETC. ETC.]

	 * No man is good enough to govern another man without that other's consent.
	 [PHOTO = ISRAELI CHECK-POINT ON W. BANK]

	 * I could not take an oath to get power, and break the oath in using the 
	   power.  [PHOTO = WIRETAPPING OR MILITARY TRIBUNAL]

	 ************************

	 * These capitalists have got into a quarrel with themselves, and we are 
	   called upon to appropriate the people's money to settle the quarrel.
	  [PHOTO = PAULSON, BERNANKE, GEITHNER]

	 * Labor is prior to and independent of capital. Labor is the superior of 
	   capital, and deserves much the higher consideration.
	 [PHOTO = COALITION OF IMMOKALEE WORKERS]

	 * With some the word liberty may mean for some men to do as they please 
	   with other men, and the product of other men's labor.
	 [PHOTO = HUGO CHAVEZ]

	 * This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit 
	   it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing Government, they can exercise 
	   their constitutional right of amending it or their revolutionary right to 
	   dismember or overthrow it.
	 [PHOTO = ABBIE HOFFMAN OR NOAM CHOMSKY]

	 * Why should there not be a patient confidence in the ultimate justice of 
	   the people? Is there any better or equal hope in the world?
	 [PHOTO = HOWARD ZINN'S "PEOPLE'S HISTORY OF THE US"]

	 ###