Crime Victims, Their Families, & Other Survivors (was Re: Rational Discussion of Threats...)

Yoshie Furuhashi furuhashi.1 at osu.edu
Tue Dec 11 18:36:17 PST 2001


Now, continuing where I left off....

Dennis P. wrote:


> > It doesn't seem to be the case that those in NY and D.C. are more
> > likely to believe that Al Qaeda, etc. are "committed to killing as
>> many Americans and non-Americans as they can" than those in other
>> locations are. You are in Michigan; Kelley is in Florida. Both of
>> you sound more alarmist than John Mage, Michael Pollak, Carl Remick,
>> & other New Yorkers on LBO-talk.
>
>I lived in NY for 17 years and have only lived in Mich for the past two.
>Most of my closest friends still live there, and a couple were directly
>affected by the attack -- one was homeless for three weeks, his apartment
>only a few blocks from Ground Zero. This same guy saw the second plane fly
>over his head near the tops of buildings, turn, then smash into the second
>tower. After watching that, and watching people jump to their deaths before
>he and a bunch of other stunned spectators ran for their lives when the
>towers collapsed, my friend is not the same. His whole outlook has been
>changed, and he is but one of countless others, you can be sure of that. LBO
>Talk is not the world, and the NYers here don't represent NYers everywhere.

Local activists with whom I have worked most often include Dan Cahill, director, Prisoners' Advocacy Network-Ohio (PAN-Ohio); Ida Strong, managing director, Citizens United for Rehabilitation of Errants (CURE-Ohio -- another prisoner advocacy org); & Alice Chen, Ohio criminal justice associate, American Friends Service Committee, Dayton office. Working on issues such as prisoners' rights, abolition of the death penalty, etc. inevitably brings you into contact with crime victims, their families, etc. who have become activists for the opposite side (more prisons, longer sentences, severer punishments, less educational programs in prisons, etc.). Most often, nothing you say or can say changes the minds of people who have already become politically active for the cause of law and order under such circumstances. If "victims' rights" advocates & the like show up at events that you hold for prisoners' rights, death penalty abolition, etc., the best thing you can do on the spot is an attempt at conflict deescalation. You may, however, reach people who have yet to become so committed to "victims' rights" discourse; even then, though, you are not likely to persuade them unless they have already become willing to hear you first of all -- on their own, one way or another.

Crime victims, their families, & other survivors are not a homogenous bunch. Some of them are against the law & order approach. The same goes for victims, their families, & other survivors of the S11 terrors. Some of them are against the war, the USA PATRIOT Act, & the like. The best people to talk to victims & survivors for the war are victims & survivors against the war, like Phyllis and Orlando Rodriguez (at <http://www.webactive.com/pacifica/exile/dn20010927.html>), David Potorti ("I Lost My Brother on 9-11; Does He Matter?" at <http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=11686>), etc. -- Yoshie

* Calendar of Anti-War Events in Columbus: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/calendar.html> * Anti-War Activist Resources: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/activist.html> * Student International Forum: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osu.edu/students/CJP/>



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