I did not want to write a whole post on this, but no one has explored Thoreau or civil disobedience yet so....
Here a writer explores some historical connections and reasoning for physical protests in the face of "what good is protesting"?
Meanwhile LATIMES reports close to 100 thousand attend the war protest over the weekend and there were other protests around the country staged for those who could not make it to DC.
Yet, the leaders generally support the war with various nuances and or qualifications --- This comes back to the question posed: what's the point of civil disobedience? Will it make a difference?
I saw a little of the news coverage -- anyone want to discuss what that looked like?
EDIT: Received this and thought if you had a chance to pass by --
Please pass this on.
Join us for a
“Women and Men in Black”
Peace Demo
12:00 noon to 1:00 pm on Mon. 1/29
In front of Bowen-Thompson Student Union
We’ll stand in silence for the first half hour to protest war, rape, ethnic cleansing and human rights abuses all over the world. Mere words cannot express the tragedy that wars and hatred bring.
Wear black to mourn the loss of life and betrayal of democratic ideals
Bring protest signs
Sponsored by Amnesty International BGSU
2 comments:
Overall, I would say that the peace march got very little coverage from the mainstream media. The network that fully covered the event was C-SPAN. The media’s refusal to cover such an event is unfortunate since so many of the 24-news networks brag about covering “all” the news, but in the end only focus in on one story, such as continuous saturation of the upcoming presidential election. While the election will be an important and extremely historic event, many of the politicians running refuse to take a clear stand on the whole Iraq issue. Republicans continue to blindly follow Bush, while Democrats have to walk the fine line of keeping the war in Bush’s corner, but also respond to the demands of the voters who elected them in November.
So....did the peace march matter? Overall, yes. According to the LA Times, the only ’08 Candidate to appear was Ohio Representative Dennis Kucinich. While Kucinich stands little to no chance of winning the Democratic nomination, his platform, “End the war now,” will force his fellow Democratic candidates to respond to his position throughout the campaign and during the primary debates. Ironically the first presidential primary debates will be hosted on CNN this April….stay tuned!
While the peace march did not get much air time from either the politicians or the media, the march offered another viewpoint aside from: “Stay the course,” “Responsible withdrawal,” or “The way forward.” Eventually, as the rest of the country begins to catch on, the politicians and mainstream media begin to realize the movement and accurately represent the true feelings of the country. President Lyndon Johnson once remarked, when CBS Evening News Anchorman Walter Cronkite stated the Vietnam War could not be won:
"If I've lost Walter Cronkite, I've lost the country."
While today’s media (Fox News aside) is all too focused on ensuring that no side is disenfranchised, they often fail to report on the controversial issues. When the media does not take action, journalists fail in their assigned role as the fourth estate of the U.S. Government. In King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” he speaks of the white moderate. According to MLK, the white moderate is someone who sees the need for civil rights, but does little to advance the movement. In some ways, our politicians and journalists have become too moderate on the handling of the war. The U.S. Senate is working on a non-binding resolution to admonish Bush’s troop surge, but when it comes time to talk about cutting off funds only a few senators like Wisconsin’s Russ Feingold are willing to take a stand. While there are only a few politicians taking notice about the recent protest against the war, the movement eventually does catch on, much like King’s movements in the 1960’s and Cronkite’s reporting during the Vietnam War.
Links Below:
http://www.wmur.com/politics/10734889/detail.html (Primary Presidential Debate)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Cronkite (Walter Cronkite)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russ_Feingold (Russ Feingold)
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