[Peace] recruiting at the Y: Board meeting TODAY!

[danielle at illinoisnorml.org]

To all of you who would like to see the University Y do more for peace,
specifically for those of you who would like to see the Board of the Y make a
policy against recruitment on Y property...

The Board of Governors of the Y meets once a month, and today is the day.  If
you would really like to attend the meeting, please call me first if you can at
337.1500.

Each meeting opens with what we call a reflection.  As I had to resign from the
Board to join the staff last month, I will be doing the reflection at the very
beginning of the meeting today.  At some point after I do the reflection, the
Board will discuss the recruitment issue.  Here is what I plan to say:

BOG 2/23/05 - The Tipping Point

I want to tell you about a book called The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can
Make a Big Difference.  This book has been recommended to me by several
internationally-known activists, and has been referenced in many speeches that
I have heard at conferences in the past few years.  The idea of a tipping point
has renewed my hope for the future of social justice work.

The tipping point is the magic moment when an idea, trend, or social behavior
crosses a threshold, tips, and spreads like wildfire.  Believing in the tipping
point requires you to think about a few things in new ways.  First, think of the
emergence of fashion trends, the ebb and flow of crime waves, the transformation
of unknown books into bestsellers, the phenomena of word of mouth, or any number
of the other mysterious changes that mark everyday life as epidemics.  Second,
then, think of ideas and products and messages and behaviors spreading just
like viruses do.

Rather than go into detail about the theory of the tipping point, I will let you
read the book and decide for yourself whether or not you agree with the idea.  I
will, however, tell you about something that happened just last night that made
me want to believe in the tipping point even more.

I heard Medea Benjamin, the founder of Global Exchange, speak at Allen Hall. 
She showed pictures from a recent trip to Iraq, and several things really stood
out to me.  Hospitals in Iraq were in bad shape already because of the
sanctions, and after the invasion were raided heavily.  There were pictures of
up to 4 malnourished and premature babies in one incubator.  There were
pictures of entire neighborhoods leveled, and raw sewage flowing through most
city streets.  Now, children are dying at a faster rate than in Uganda and
Haiti.  There were pictures of dead Iraqis that were obviously killed by
chemical weapons.  And the most horrifying part to me is the billions of
dollars we are paying American corporations to rebuild Iraq.  Medea traveled
throughout Iraq, and the only signs of rebuilding was fresh paint on the
outsides of schools and other buildings, but there is no work being done on the
insides of the buildings!  She showed pictures of lines of cars waiting for gas.
 Before the invasion, Iraqis could buy a gallon of gas for 5 cents, and now they
wait sometimes as long as 3 days to pay outrageous amounts of money for each
gallon of gas.  She also told countless stories of torture and other horrors.

What does all of this have to do with the tipping point?  I cling to the hope of
the tipping point, the moment when the American people wake up and demand an end
to what is happening.  Over time, more and more people have been discovering
what is going on, and more and more people are beginning to vote.  Word is
spreading from one person to another, and so the truth is spreading
exponentially.  Every state in the U.S. but two is in a fiscal crisis, so it is
not long before the majority of people realize the cost of all of our wars has
caught up to us.  In California, entire public libraries are being shut down,
while prisons continue to be built and we prepare to begin bombing Iran. 
People will not stand for this for long, but they will have to work very hard
to regain the rights we are losing.  I know I will have to fight very hard for
peace and justice every day until I die, but a movement is growing, one person
at a time.






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