The Amherst Common
A rally against the war that is being run by moderate libertarians.
The lead major speaker is from the ACLU. At 1, Russell Chernin is scheduled to give us an hour on the War on Civil Liberties, with questions and answers.
We actually can lever into the schedule some additional people. Please contact me ASAP or on site if you are interested.
The intervening musical interludes are light jazz, not hard rock.
Your humble correspondent will give the lead antiwar speech. I attach the opening draft segment.
Sponsored by Liberty for Massachusetts http://www.LibertyForMassachusetts
and the PVLA
http://www.pvla.net
I will begin where we should begin:
Sixty Nine Years Ago, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in agreement with Congress proclaimed the last Sunday in September--that's today--to be National Gold Star Mothers day, to honor the women whose sons and daughters had died in patriotic service to our country.
He was referring to an American custom no longer followed: During war, when a family had a son or daughter serving in the military, they flew an American flag with large blue stars--one for each son or daughter--in the center. And when one of those sons or daughters died, they replaced the blue star with a gold star, flying the gold-star flag to mark their family's sacrifice.
Now, once again, our country has found itself in a war, a war that has cost the lives of almost 2000 Americans, thousands of allied--mostly Iraqi--soldiers and police, and tens and tens and tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians, most of whom died after we proclaimed victory. More than fourteen thousand American soldiers have been wounded, half very seriously.
The War on Iraq is a war like no other in our history, except in one respect:
Americans are once again losing our sons and daughters, our grandsons and grand-daughters.
I begin not with oratorical flourishes but by offering proper respect to the hundreds and hundreds of Americans who cannot join us this day, hundreds and hundreds of Americans who cannot join us because their lives were taken by our War on Iraq. We cannot return those men and women to life. We cannot return them to their parents and grandparents and spouses and friends and children. We, can, however, do two things for them.
First, I ask that you join me in a moment of silence, a moment of silence for all those who died in our War on Iraq, and a moment of silence for all their relatives, who must carry on with life.
ONE MINUTE SPACE
Thank you.
And now I come to the second thing we can do to honor the memories of all those people, American and Iraqis alike, who died as a result of the war on Iraq. We cannot bring them back to life, but we may strive to ensure that they are not pointlessly joined in the afterlife by additional thousands of Americans and tens of thousands of Iraqis. We cannot return them to their families. We can work to ensure that no more families are pointlessly torn asunder by the war on Iraq.
I'm a college professor I'm a long winded. It's my duty to be long winded. It's in my job description.
I'm going to start at the end. I'm going to start by describing how you, yes you, can work to end the War on Iraq, if that's what you want. I'll then come back to whether the War On Iraq is wrong, and whether it should be promptly ended.
But first I'll give you a chance to speak up, each one of you. First I'll ask for cheers from people who want to end the war. Then I'll ask for cheers from people who want to continue the war. And finally I'll ask everyone to cheer, to thank all their fellow Americans for speaking up for the cause in which they believe.
That's what I'm going to do.
So, first, cheers from people who want to end the war. Let's hear it!
Now, cheers from people who want to continue the war. Let's hear it!
Finally I'll ask everyone to cheer, to thank all their fellow Americans for speaking up for the cause in which they believe.
Note I said: you, what you can do to help. You includes everyone in earshot who agrees that the war on Iraq should end. The war on Iraq will not end because some old guy gave a long boring speech. It will end because you and you and you and you, and everyone else here who agrees that the war on Iraq is a mistake, does what is necessary to end it.
"What is necessary" is honest, legal, political activism. It's what was once called 'doing your patriotic duty for your country' by participating in elections and political campaigns.
There are a lot of political leaders in this country who support the war on Iraq. There are others who do not, but are unwilling to speak up on the matter in public. And then there are a few bright shining stars like Congressman Ron Paul of Texas and united states senator Russell Feingold of Wisconsin, people who are not afraid to speak their minds and call for an end to the War On Iraq. To end the war, we need more bright shining stars.
How do you do politics? How do you get more bright shining stars!
If you sit around and talk with a few friends, more or less no matter what you say, your words will have no effect. For you young people in the audience, if you want to have any effect at all you need to start by registering to vote. The Liberty for Massachusetts booth has a stock of voter registration forms, so you can do the right thing and register.
If you want to bring politicians to agree with your point of view, registering to vote is not enough. You need to convince politicians that your side is right, and that they should support what you believe. How do you do that?
In the end, there is only one thing that really matters to almost every politician, regardless of party or ideology. They all want to be re-elected. If you want to convince a politician to work to end the war-this works equally well for people on the other side of the issue-you need to convince them that they have two choices. The first choice is that they can work to end the war. The second choice is that they can enjoy early retirement to the welcoming arms of their loving families.
You should realize that some politicians cannot be convinced. For those politicians, you must resort to the American way of politics. You must work now, vigorously and effectively, to de-elect them, so that they no longer steer our national ship of state.
How do you do political activism? How can you send your message to the American people, to persuade them to agree with you? You can always resort to the traditional letter to the editor of the newspaper or magazine. If you're fond of the Internet, there are vast numbers of web sites and blogs where you can remain reasonably on topic, so you don't annoy people, and still set forth your views. For students, these are things you can do from the comfort and safety of your computer keyboard, without having to set foot outside of your home.
Those of you who are here have already shown that you're willing to do more. You came out on this beautiful fall day, when you could've been watching television, playing computer games, or doing homework. You came here. You have already made a difference. I'd like to thank you for doing that. By showing up today, you have already sent a message to Washington: Many Americans do not support Washington's foreign policy.
You can do more of the same. You can take back to your home towns and campuses a simple possibility: Exercise your constitutional rights of free assembly. Assemble and demonstrate against the War On Iraq. And when you do, pay attention to how Massachusetts' successful elected politicians manage a street demonstration. They don't go to the town board for their parade permit and then march up and down streets, blocking traffic and annoying possible supporters. They assemble their friends, give them signs, and have them line up on street corners, waving and smiling at motorists.
And they get elected.
What else can you do?
How do you get that message across to Washington? In the end, what determines how Washington thinks is electoral politics. What will determine whether we end the war on Iraq, or whether we keep sending our men and women to the Iraq quagmire for another twenty years, is the voice of the voters.
Most voters will not speak up spontaneously. They speak out by supporting candidates. If you want voters to support your candidates, you must take three steps:
You must put your candidates on the ballot.
You must tell the voters where your candidates stand.
You must persuade the voters to support your candidates.
That's three simple steps. Ballot access. Candidate Awareness. Candidate support.
Those three steps are where real activism comes in. If you want to make a difference, on either side, you have to get involved in politics enough to make that difference. You have to join and support political parties and political campaigns that support your point of view. You have to be sure that candidates who support your point of view are on the ballot and are elected by the voters. That's hard work, sweat and tears and money. If you don't try to make a difference, you surely won't.
So who do you support? I'll be nonpartisan here. George Washington said we should have many foreign friends and few foreign entanglements. That was George Washington's foreign policy recommendation, and he was right.
As a practical matter, if you want to continue the war, you can support the Republican party or considerable parts of the Democratic party. They'll be glad of your donations.
If you want to end the war, you can support some excellent parts of the Democratic party or a very few equally excellent but very different Republicans.
If you want a political party that as a party actively opposes the war on Iraq, your choice is a bit limited. If you want a party whose Presidential candidate at least tries to get votes in almost every state, you are down to one choice. You can support the Libertarian party, the party of Freedom.
I came here with liberty for Massachusetts and the Pioneer Valley Libertarian Association. We are not political parties. We do not run candidates for office under our names. We support patriotic political activism, including activism by members and friends, people like you, who run for office. If you want to get involved in politics, as all patriotic Americans should, we are delighted to give you advice. Come by one of our meetings. For more information, reach our web site: libertyformassachusetts.Org.
I said I would work through my speech backwards. I've just given you the ending. If you want to make a difference, you need to do the different by doing politics.
*****
As I said, this is not the typical 'the war is bad' lecture.