And E-Mail From An Old Friend

[ThomWV]

Just for starters he and his wife and I are planning on car-pooling to DC saturday morning. The plan is if we find others that need rides (share expenses) we'll caravan, otherwise its carpool. Then this evening He sends me this:

"Son, let me ask you something...and I want you to think about it. what the fuck good is it going to do by going to D.c. the people who need the message of such a gathering NO MATTER HOW BIG, have their ears entirely closed. the don't want to hear it and they won't. they didn't before the war when Bush called the millions a "focus group"...and that is exactly the way he and his cadre will see it this time..guaranteed! so, the only person you and i are going to effect by going there is putting more profits in the oil companies
already bloated wallets and essentially, ourselves. I'm having some second thoughts on what is basically a wasted effort and a wasted day.

yer thoughts?"


So I responded with this:

"It is a good point but it ignores the fact that at some level we are still a democracy, and so at some level it is still the will of the people that Governs. Bush and the rest of the neocons are really an anomaly when you think about it. Even Nixon and Johnson had to eventually bow to public pressure, and these clowns will too.

The point in going - and honest to god son I shit you not - is so that two or three more heads will show up on the nightly news in south-shithook, North Dakota. People are pack animals and when the drones see a big stir they want to become apart of it - ideology is meaningless. For the last decade it has become more and more fashionable to be part of the Republican mob, but if a bigger mob forms that is clearly Democratic then it will become fashionable, once again, to be a Democrat. The American people are that shallow old son.

So that's why you and I are going - so some old Kanute will see a bigger blur of faces than he expected and will get the notion that maybe all those folks can't be all wrong. No more, no less; ants in a line, but the longer the line the better it promotes the cause."

How would you have responded?

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. Works for me *thumbs up* Yes the junta has its ears colsed, but it's good

to get out there and let the world know how you feel. And to do it with hundreds, thousnads, or millions of other people all at once? Just WOW!

[wryter2000]

2. You could have said the exact thing about Viet Nam

It took many, many protests and thousands upon thousands of people in the street before the protests took effect. In fact, I'll bet we're in a better position this time because the war is already unpopular, two-and-one-half years after it started.

[calimary]

6. This is correct. MANY activists echo this - that this anti-war effort has

gained ground and momentum much more rapidly than the Vietnam era protests did. Probably because things move faster thanks to the internet. We are seeing these numbers and intensities of protests much sooner in the "life" of this war than was true during Vietnam.

Something else, too, BTW - I really liked your use of the word "fashionable." It's superficial, and EXTREMELY true. The herd mentality will provoke more people to join up, just because it's building and looking exciting and gaining in fame and credibility and exposure. Nobody wants to join a group that doesn't look like it's got power and potential. This does, so it's going to attract more people. And among the mindless sheep who just go along for the ride because it was something to do on a nice day in DC, there WILL be some whose hearts are set aflame, whose minds are provoked into thinking deeply (because there are so many educational opportunitites and people who know a lot of background at these things, and conversations get rolling fairly easily with the good camaraderie you tend to find at these things), and who hit their own critical mass. Some of them actually WILL wake up and start asking questions on their own, spurred on by the fervor and dedication of the believers and activists around them. That's why it's so helpful to be informed. You might set someone straight on an issue about which they've only heard the limbaugh version. You might be standing next to someone with whom you'll strike up a conversation, and by the end of it, you'll hear them saying "wow, I've been getting wrong information..." or "I never knew this stuff - how'd you find all this out?" or "is there someplace where I can find out more?"

At that point, you get credit for saving another soul!!!

They won't all be like this. But you just might be able to reach one or two. Who knows? If so, that'll be one or two more awakened, enlightened people than there were before they ran into you at this event. You never know...

I mean, my first anti-war rally during Vietnam was actually a "date" with a younger man, who invited me to go to the one in Pershing Square in downtown L.A. We marched for several blocks, shouting "Peace NOW!" I knew next to nothing about the anti-war movement, and had been too busy studying to pay much attention to politics beyond just a vague notion that I didn't like what Nixon was up to. But I didn't know squat. I went along thinking it might be fun and an interesting way to spend a Saturday afternoon (and the guy was young and cute and, astoundingly, crazy about me - :D ??!??!?!?). But I saw the commitment of the people around me who were really shouting their intense feelings (while I was merely floating along for the ride, enjoying the scenery and the atmosphere), and I saw other activists representing other issues and everybody had pamphlets and flyers and signs and buttons and literature to pass out, and I collected a fair share of it. And I was truly changed. I started to wonder about things even more seriously, and to ask questions, and do research... and eventually I understood a lot of things more fully.

One other benefit from participating in these things - if you're feeling at all shaky or you're in one of those "aw hell, what's the use" modes, this will buoy you up. The people there will be of like mind and will give you a "contact high" of support and solidarity. You will see how NOT ALONE you are. And that will be MOST satisfying, and gratifying. And it might fire you up to fight another day instead of getting frustrated and demoralized. Besides, there are bound to be lots of people who are INTENSELY active and have all kinds of information and resource material and answers to questions you may not even be ready to ask yet, and they'll help to empower you.

They're an enriching experience.

[DURHAM D]

3. For me, the biggest reward for making the effort to

march on Washington is to feel the power and new energy that comes from spending a day with thousands of like-minded people doing something about things that matter.

Otherwise, we stay at home alone just thinking and not doing.

To feel/see first hand that you are a part of a greater community is the reward.

[patrice]

4. BushCo is not God.

To assume actions have ONLY certain, discrete, identifiable, effects is a mistake. He assumes the criteria he uses for identifying "significance" is accurate.

We are working from the bottom up, every little action you can think of adds up, because something is always more than nothing. And sometimes even just a little bit, or maybe even only just a few people, become that much more important, BECAUSE they are so few or small. Saturday isn't going to be anything like that. It will minimally be maybe 200,000. and you and your friends ***will help everyone you interact with*** that day to be stronger and to persevere for the People.

Solidarity!!!

[IN-dem]

5. And thanks to you guys...You will be representing people

like me who are not able to go. And I thank all of you from the bottom of my heart.

[calimary]

7. Me too! Welcome to DU! I'm stuck going to one of the local ones

here in L.A. because tripping across the country is just not an option this year.

Glad you're here with us!

Let's all work toward IMPEACHMENT!!!!!!!

Really, the momentum is with US now - not with the bad guys anymore. :evilgrin:

[IN-dem]

8. Thanks for the welcome n/t

[glitch]

9. Good reasons but not all - there is a wonderful energy that comes from

being in a large group of like-minded people. Very important in keeping your spirits up.
You guys are making history and I in Seattle envy you.

[gratuitous]

10. A good response

I would only add two old bromides: "If it makes no difference what you do, do the right thing anyway."

And:

"Do the right thing and let go of the result."

[pretzel4gore]

11. both the civil war and world war 2...

in both situation, the good guys took an awful beating at first, and the gloating by the enemy was...well incessant. ...then, quietly, the situation changed, and when both conflicts ended, the southern bullyboys and the nazis were hiding among the refugees they'd turn their own followers into....
with both those conflicts in mind, we should remember that a certain naivite, or possibly a genuine desire for peace hamstrung the good guys while a nudge wink grab the brass ring boldness temporarily enlivened the assholes, who melted like butter when the jackboots came marching over their borders...the busheviks can't keep riding the bucking bronco they're spurring on, but they dare not let go the reins!

[karlrschneider]

12. I think doing SOMETHING is a hell of a lot better than doing NOTHING.

...
I'm still working on logistics to see if I can make it, but if not I plan to make some local noise.

[lostnfound]

13. Faith in chaos theory? and an example from Daniel Ellsburg

who has said that his decision to expose the Pentagon papers was prompted by seeing a very small handful of powerless people outside his Pentagon office, standing in the rain holding signs about ending the war.

Chaos theory or the butterfly effect...one person CAN make a difference.