Sheehan: "Forcing the powerful to commit their crimes in the light of day"

[Karmadillo]

When someone can compare your actions to those of Martin Luther King and the comparison seems apt, you're doing pretty good.

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=1&ItemID=8496

The strategy employed by Cindy Sheehan to hold President Bush accountable needs to be examined for its effectiveness. I believe her effectiveness is rooted in something that Martin Luther King pointed to as an essential feature of any effective non-violent action and that is the use of "confrontation" to make "the invisible visible."

Recall, first, the Birmingham campaign of 1963. The campaign itself was dubbed Project Confrontation. "Instead of submitting to surreptitious cruelty in thousands of dark jail cells and on countless shadowed street corners," King strategized, the non-violent resister "would force his oppressor to commit his brutality openly - in the light of day - with the rest of the world looking on."

The purpose of this type of confrontation, King believed, was to "dramatize the gulf between promise and fulfillment…to make the invisible visible."

"We merely bring to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive. Injustice must be exposed, with all the tension its exposure creates…. Non-violence is effective," King summarized, "if it's militant enough, it's really doing something."

more...

[BlueEyedSon]

1. kicked and recommended

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

2. "Think of all the hate there is in Red China

Then take a look around to Selma Alabama"--from "Eve of Destruction--shows that King had it right-the hate and nastiness crawled out into the light of day, and was condemned by the world.

I think the spirit of MLK is there with Cindy, don't you?

[Sydnie]

3. Now THAT is a slogan! Gonna make a tshirt with that one for myself

That is the best description I have heard for Cindy's actions. It explains and puts into proper perspective just why she is doing what she is doing. I hope you forward that idea to Skinner for an addition to the DU Store.

[Karmadillo]

4. I agree. The author saved his best line for last.

I'll forward to Skinner to see what he thinks of your idea.

[slay]

5. Great stuff

kick

[Karmadillo]

6. Kick

nt

[liberalla]

7. Thanks for posting... I will be thinking about this alot.

She states, "We will force him to answer to us." And of course,

with the rest of the world looking on, his failure to answer is equally as revealing.