[Peace-discuss] [Peace] 4th of July: "150 Years of Local Heroes"

[Laurie Solomon]

I think it might be ok to interpret "local" to mean Central Illinois; but I 
would advise against going too far beyond that.  I would find it hard to 
give any credence to any claims that Chicago is local or that St. Louis is 
local.  If they are local with respect to Champaign/Urbana, why not consider 
New York, Philadelphia, Detroit, Berkeley, San Francisco,  or Boston equally 
local?   I agree that it is easier to find local Civil rights heroes than 
anti-war heroes or to find pro labor heroes than anti-war heroes in this 
locality; but if we do not truly have any notable anti-war heroes, I do not 
think we should make them up just to have an anti-war heroes.  Nor do I 
think we should turn to naming organizations as heroes because we cannot 
find notable individuals to designate as heroes.   If there should be a 
decision to name organizations as local heroes and if we are looking for 
anti-war heroes, why not name the various local veterans against the various 
wars organizations as local heroes or name their leadership and members as 
being local heroes?

By the way, just for the sake of argument, what exactly is a "hero" and what 
constitutive characteristics are required to define someone or thing as a 
hero.  Are their specific actions that comprise "heroic" acts; and are those 
who do those actions "heroes" just by virtue of doing the act even if all 
the other things that they have done are mundane or un-heroic?

Personally, I think we should nominate the common man on the street as a 
local hero since the local common man on the street has had to put up with a 
lot more shit than he/she deserves to have to put up with, had to suffer 
more hardships and suffering at the hands of the establishment than have the 
so-called elites or those in leadership positions, and had to endure more 
frustration and abuse than then what should be their fair share of the 
burdens of citizenship just so the establishment could live and survive with 
the benefits and in the custom that they think they are entitled to.

My opinion would be to paraphrase some Supreme Court Justices from the past 
and celebrate 150 years of idiocy and the rule of assholes by proclaiming 
150 years of leadership by idiots and assholes is enough.

--------------------------------------------------
From: "C. G. Estabrook" <galliher at illinois.edu>
Sent: Monday, May 10, 2010 3:38 PM
To: "Laurie Solomon" <ls1000 at live.com>
Cc: <peace-discuss at anti-war.net>
Subject: Re: [Peace-discuss] [Peace] 4th of July: "150 Years of Local 
Heroes"

> I'm afraid Laurie's right about Lincoln; it took some substantial effort 
> (and
> selective quotation) to include him in an anti-war float last year.
>
> It's not much problem to find local heroes of the civil rights movement; 
> it's
> more trouble perhaps to find local heroes of the anti-war movement.
>
> At the AWARE meeting last night, someone mentioned the pacifist Dorothy 
> Day (a
> student at UIUC). Others suggested we interpret "local" widely enough to
> include Jane Addams, William Jennings Bryan, Eugene Debs, etc.
>
> I think it would be wise not to include any living figures, not only to 
> help
> recover local anti-war history, but also to avoid current debates over 
> what
> constitutes an anti-war position. --CGE
>
>
> On 5/10/10 12:37 PM, Laurie Solomon wrote:
>> Some how Stuart seems to think that Lincoln was anti-war AND anti-racist;
>> this is a questionable assumption and assertion at best. Aside from 
>> people
>> like John Lee Johnson and others that I have mentioned in a previous 
>> post,
>> there is Vernon L. Barkstall.
>>
>
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