Hey everybody. Happy 1st day of March.
Spiritual Ramble: I sat in class with a PSR colleague from Korea yesterday who reminded me that the power of being is equal (if not superior) to the power of doing. Henceforth, today I’m trying to be with people with all my attention and honesty. It feels like the work of justice, the work of the spirit. I’m digging it.
Political Ramble: Today I went to the Federal Building in San Francisco. I stood in solidarity with people doing civil disobedience in response to the atrocities in Iraq. I was happy to be there, but saddened by something. Almost every political resistance activity I’ve participated in has been attended by old-skool civil rights activists: over 50, white, middle/upper class. Today was no exception. Maybe their methods are ineffective and folks don’t want to join because it’s not worth their time to lay on the ground, get arrested, get released and go home; but hey--at least their doing something. These old guard activists showing up will be gone within 20 years. Then who is going to take up non-violent resistance? Where is my generation? Are we not interested, not organized, too distracted, too stoned? I agree the time for singing “Blowin in the Wind” while holding banners and waiving peace signs is over. But never before has the spirit of dissent been more needed. I wonder how bad things need to get before we wake up, stand up and begin to throw down.
Any thoughts?
Blessings to you...
2 comments:
a few things i think contribute:
- the media, government, military, etc. learned a lot more from Vietnam than the average person. disobedience (especially in familiar methods) doesn't have the same effect
- we need more moral/activist imagination in thinking about what we do. the system that Vietnam protesters resisted is no longer the system we have today
- the 60s protests gave us certain lenses about what activism is. i think it blinds us to activist movements and resistance that's happening today
- media outlets gives us the illusion that we have more news, or more complete news, but there is a lack of mainstream news coverage and commentary about protest, resistance, etc. (the media was often blamed for covering and reporting on protests, which "made" the US lose the war).
i think there's more but that's a start. looking forward to more brainstorming and action
me too my friend, me too.
i'm especially in agreement with you about the lack of innovation coming from our stuckness on dissent methods of yesteryears.
if you do what you've always done, you're gonna get what you've always got.
i think creativity and imagination are the key.
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