[Peace-discuss] [sf-core] More dead children on Obama's watch

[C. G. Estabrook]

Mike,

Regarding cc-ing the White House, I'm reminded of something Chomsky wrote almost 20 years ago:

> For much of my life, I've been closely involved with pacifist groups in direct action and resistance, and educational and organizing projects. We've spent days in jail together, and it is a freakish accident that they did not extend to many years, as we realistically expected 30 years ago (an interesting tale, but a different one). That creates bonds of loyalty and friendship, but also brings out some disagreements. So, my Quaker friends and colleagues in disrupting illegitimate authority adopt the slogan: "Speak truth to power." I strongly disagree. The audience is entirely wrong, and the effort hardly more than a form of self-indulgence. It is a waste of time and a pointless pursuit to speak truth to Henry Kissinger, or the CEO of General Motors, or others who exercise power in coercive institutions -- truths that they already know well enough, for the most part.
> 
> Again, a qualification is in order. Insofar as such people dissociate themselves from their institutional setting and become human beings, moral agents, then they join everyone else. But in their institutional roles, as people who wield power, they are hardly worth addressing, any more than the worst tyrants and criminals, who are also human beings, however terrible their actions.
> 
> To speak truth to power is not a particularly honorable vocation. One should seek out an audience that matters -- and furthermore (another important qualification), it should not be seen as an audience, but as a community of common concern in which one hopes to participate constructively. We should not be speaking /to, but with. That is second nature to any good teacher, and should be to any writer and intellectual as well. 
> 
> 
Regards, Carl

On Mar 27, 2013, at 5:01 PM, Mike Lehman <rebelmike at earthlink.net> wrote:

> 
> Carl,
> I think you've mis-directed your mail again. I don't see where you've cc-ed the White House. 
> 
> Given we've all tried and found the powers that be to be remarkably unresponsive to such concerns, I can understand perhaps your overlooking that. However, AFAIK, no one here supports killing Afghan babies - or any other kind of babies...
>