[Peace-discuss] Re: [Peace-action] Re: student interview request

[Karen Medina]

>> an increase
>> in membership recently, due to the growing discontent (with the current wars)

Iga mentioned Obama's "plan to end the wars".
In the peace movement, I doubt if any of us have much hope of Obama doing this.

In some ways, we are tired. There was a clear mandate to Congress that
the people want to end the wars, and to close Guantanamo and the other
secret prisons. Changing the Congress from Republican to Democrat
control was nothing short of a miracle. What more of a mandate does
Obama want? What more of a mandate does Congress want?

Power corrupts.

Even so, there is hope. I think the people implementing the policies
are finding ways around the policies.
* The immediate stop of the Gtmo prosecutions is one piece of evidence
-- they were looking for a reason to stop; they wanted to stop;
someone involved believes that habeus corpus should be restored. So
what if Obama is back-pedaling? Those who play the role of the little
pieces in the bike chain, THEY want the situation to change.
* The resignation of people like foreign service officer Matthew Hoh
is another piece of evidence. More and more people see that "Afghans
Fight Because the U.S. Is There, Not Because They're Terrorists" -
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2009/10/matthew_hoh_afghanistan_foreig.html

Yes, the peace movement is changing. We aren't getting the turnouts.
But the messages once carried alone by our lonely voices shouting,
those messages are now murmured on every corner, every coffee shop,
every greasy spoon restaurant in the United States. Change comes from
the people. Even the president can't stop it. The people have turned
the corner.

-karen medina