Thursday’s Dispatches column will focus on the need for protest against the war in Iraq (The Coalition for Peace Action of Monroe Township was out this weekend and expects to be out there again on Saturday), but I wanted to offer two links worth reading that neatly sum up my thoughts.
The first is an essay/column from Howard Zinn in the current issue of The Progressive that includes these paragraphs:
When a social movement adopts the compromises of legislators, it has forgotten its role, which is to push and challenge the politicians, not to fall in meekly behind them.
We who protest the war are not politicians. We are citizens. Whatever politicians may do, let them first feel the full force of citizens who speak for what is right, not for what is winnable, in a shamefully timorous Congress.
The second is a sometimes overlooked speech given by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. 40 years ago this month (I somehow failed to note it on the anniversary three weeks ago). From “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence”:
Meanwhile, we in the churches and synagogues have a continuing task while we urge our government to disengage itself from a disgraceful commitment. We must be prepared to match actions with words by seeking out every creative means of protest possible.
As we counsel young men concerning military service we must clarify for them our nation’s role in Vietnam and challenge them with the alternative of conscientious objection. I am pleased to say that this is the path now being chosen by more than 70 students at my own Alma Mater, Morehouse College, and I recommend it to all who find the American course in Vietnam a dishonorable and unjust one. Moreover, I would encourage all ministers of draft age to give up their ministerial exemptions and seek status as conscientious objectors. Every man of humane convictions must decide on the protest that best suits his convictions, but we must all protest.
As a button that I’ve had since I was probably 20 and that I still wear on occasion says: “Peace — protest and survive.”
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Hank Kalet 