[Peace-discuss] Save books, because you can't save kids from Obama?

[Stuart Levy]

Carl, and all,

It's 'way easier for people to mobilize on issues that are seen as 
affecting them directly.   If more of us had relatives in AF, PK, IQ, 
Yemen, etc., then more anti-war events these days might fill rooms, 
too.   But to most people in the US, war and peace feel like pretty 
remote issues - and intractable ones.

Of course not everyone feels that way.   You may remember Aimee as the 
one who led a bunch of us in demonstrating against, and publicly 
questioning, a champion of the military-industrial complex whom the U of 
I recently invited to speak on the "public good" (!) - Norman Augustine, 
ex-head of Lockheed Martin.

If we want to see an anti-war movement that is as effective in 
organizing people as other local activists have been in organizing them 
over libraries, schools, and jails, then we have to find a way to make 
distant, ever-more-secret wars seem immediate and personal - and to make 
them seem other than inevitable.   (Remember the woman who, at a recent 
demonstration, commented that "no one goes to war because they *want* to.")

There's no need to disparage local democratic action because we haven't 
figured out how to do that.

     Stuart

On 7/10/13 10:17 AM, Rickman, Aimee N wrote:
> Carl,
>
> I am really troubled by this comment. Do you even know what is going on at the library?
>
> Your insinuation that the concerns raised over the situation at the library somehow take energy away from organizing around more important issues is offensive and wrong. People organizing around the library are addressing issues of labor, of power, of transparency, of private control over public spaces, with folks from CU demanding public involvement in the stewarding of this local public institutions.
>
> Is the library situation as worrisome as the US drone program? As the findings and treatment of Snoden, Manning, or Assange? As the dismantling of the voter right bill? As our continued involvement in the middle east? No. But it is not fair for you to pit this issue against the others and call one more worthy than the other. Those of us organizing around the library are not tunnel-visioned. We can (and do) give our attention to more than one issue at a time. Your comment suggests that the library is being challenged to the detriment of the betterment of other worthy causes. This is not the case. It is not a zero sum game. And it is for you to suggest that this is a displaced witch hunt trivializes what is going on at the library and demeans the powerful ripple effect that comes from movements such as this that encourage citizens to claim their rights and to realize (despite all they are told) that they can make a difference in how things go.
>
> Beyond this, your comment is a very familiar cocky discrediting of an effort for not being the "real" or "right" one. Why, Carl? You must see that this is demeaning and offensive and just plain wrong.
>
> Perhaps you want to learn more about what is going on at UFL? If so, here's a clearinghouse of information: http://reclaimingourlibrary.blogspot.com/
>
> But I am guessing you are not interested in this. I admired you on News from Neptune, but have grown more than weary of your eternally pessimistic and judgmental armchair commentary on this list. I think you're more than content to be in this space whether the target of your critique is Obama or your activist neighbors.
>
> It is unfortunate.
>
>
>
>
> **************Apologies for any random question marks my system has weirdly added to this email********************
>
>
> ________________________________________
> From: OccupyCU [occupycu-bounces at lists.chambana.net] on behalf of C. G. Estabrook [carl at newsfromneptune.com]
> Sent: Wednesday, July 10, 2013 9:11 AM
> To: peace-discuss at anti-war.net
> Cc: sftalk at yahoogroups.com; occupycu
> Subject: [OccupyCU] Save books, because you can't save kids from Obama?
>
> Quite remarkable outrage is being displayed by people of progressive disposition in Urbana over the discarding of books from the local library.
>
> Given IT, such a decision is probably of as little importance as at any time since the invention of printing. But a friend plausibly suggests that the outrage is displaced affect, arising from our seeming inability or unwillingness to stop the all-but-ignored killing by our murderous government - or even to stop our chief magistrate (whom many library protestors voted for) from persecuting those who publish the truth - Snowden, Manning, Assange, et al.
>
> We choke on a culling gnat and stomach a criminal camel.
>
> http://www.news-gazette.com/news/local/2013-07-09/updated-urbana-library-seek-early-separation-director.html
>
> --CGE
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