berman@ihopb.UUCP (Andy Berman) (11/09/84)
----------------------------------- Chuck McManis, questions the wisdom of the Emergency Response Network (a community-based network of people who are pledging to perform non-violent civil disobedience on the day that Reagan bombs or invades Nicaragua, or other similar atrocity). McManis asks: >What ever happened to writing your congressperson? If enough people >really are against it, (not say, 1000 people who manage to get their >picture in the press for violating the law simultaneously) and they >tell their representatives, then the government will not increase >its central american activities. It certainly worked for the Reagan >tax cut, which would have never passed had it not been for the >overwhelming support shown by the American people. The ERN sounds >like another attempt at disrupting the government by a small group >of people. Who benefits from this? Certainly not central america, >or the people of the united states, it only makes us look bad on >international T.V. Why not use government rather than abuse it, and >let it work the way it was designed. >-- ---------------------------------------------- These ideas deserve a forthright reply, so here goes: 1) Writing Congress - a good idea. But Congress has already voted several times to cut off aid to the Contras. Yet the Reagan administration and the CIA continue to supply weapons, training and advisors to the Contras. Do they violate US law? Indeed they do! Writing Congress has been largely successful in establishing a congressional mood opposed to the escalating US involvement in Central America. Yet that involvement goes on, and may soon reach even more tragic proportions. Clearly writing Congress on this issue is not enough. 2) "Make us look bad on international TV" - On the Contrary! The protests of American citizens at the brazen war moves of the Reagan regime help further the image of the American people as a caring people, a people of conscience, in the eyes of the world. A direct US attack on Central America will cause outrage through-out Latin America, Europe and the world, by peoples of many political perspectives. THAT action, not the protests against it will make us look bad on international TV. 3) Non-violent Civil disobedience is a tactic with a proud history in our own time. M. Ghandi and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. used it successfully to reach out to the conscience of people when other means had failed. They broke laws, they went to jail, not once but hundreds of times. Do not fear non-violent civil disobedience when used as a protest against such an odious crime as would be a direct US intervention in Central America. Indeed, be happy that it is civil, and it is non-violent! Andy Berman ...ihnp4!ihlpg!berman --------------------------------------------------------
jhull@spp2.UUCP (11/21/84)
In article <633@ihopb.UUCP> berman@ihopb.UUCP (Andy Berman) writes: > >These ideas deserve a forthright reply, so here goes: >. >. >. >3) Non-violent Civil disobedience is a tactic with a proud history in > our own time. M. Ghandi and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. used it > successfully to reach out to the conscience of people when other > means had failed. They broke laws, they went to jail, not once but > hundreds of times. Do not fear non-violent civil disobedience when > used as a protest against such an odious crime as would be a direct > US intervention in Central America. Indeed, be happy that it is > civil, and it is non-violent! > > Andy Berman ...ihnp4!ihlpg!berman > >-------------------------------------------------------- An outstanding response. The net at its best. I absolutely disagree with the political position you are taking (remember what happened to the people in North Vietnam, South Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia when the American government was forced to pull out by non-violent (?) protest) but I APPLAUD the way you are going about it. Do remember, though, that both Ghandi and King were dealing with domestic issues, not foreign policy. I see significanct differences between their cases and the current situation. -- Blessed Be, jhull@spp2.UUCP Jeff Hull trwspp!spp2!jhull@trwrb.UUCP 13817 Yukon Ave. Hawthorne, CA 90250