[Peace-discuss] [nppryan] FW: Teaching Against the Death Penalty

[C G Estabrook]

Karen--

As you know, my model for political discussions and debate for more than 40 years has been Noam Chomsky - with a dash of Alex Cockburn thrown in. 

Both tried to tell the truth and shame (or beat) the devil. Chomsky: “It is the responsibility of intellectuals to speak the truth and to expose lies. This, at least, may seem enough of a truism to pass over without comment...” <https://chomsky.info/19670223/>.

That has not always produced unity and harmony on the local political scene, in the more than fifteen years of AWARE’s existence. (See, from more than a dozen years ago, “Illinois Anti-Warriors and the Attractive Senator” <https://www.counterpunch.org/2005/09/29/illinois-anti-warriors-and-the-attractive-senator/>). 

I don’t regret e.g. pointing out the fact that Obama was a fake, even if it harmed the unity (as it did) of AWARE.

You also know that it is not the case that I am “concerned with preserving the lives of fetuses while caring nothing for the lives of children we are slaughtering daily...”

At the bromide level - “my political views: I'm basically against anything that kills people or destroys the planet we live on."

Francis’ impassioned and admirable defense of human life curiously applies only to those who have had their umbilical cords detached - an apparently magical transformation that suddenly renders one human, and the subject of rights. I don’t subscribe to that religion.  

Regards,
Carl

> On Jun 9, 2018, at 5:09 PM, Karen Aram via Peace-discuss <peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net> wrote:
> 
> Carl, 
> 
> Your insistence on provoking anger by everyone and anyone against the organizations you purport to represent, is the inconsistency. Unlike the brain dead out there, with degrees after their names, who are so concerned with preserving the lives of “fetuses”, while caring nothing for the lives of children we are slaughtering daily, or those who are so concerned with the lives of women, their opportunities for advancement in their careers, while ignoring those we are killing daily elsewhere in the world, you do care about the lives of the already born. 
> 
> It’s unfortunate you choose to alienate and  prevent any possibility of uniting people, or groups to prevent such wonton deaths, with your personal views that are irrelevant .
>