Doug Henwood wrote:
>
> . And saying there's no state involved, and therefore
> no issue of censorship, is a bit of a dodge; if it ever came down to
> who could summon the largest number of goons, we'd lose.
>
In the abstract -- and often _but not always_ in the specific context. And at Brown we won: the Brown students clearly discovered themselves (as an organized group) == and that in itself would be a great victory. More important other students elsewhere got a whiff of those high spirits that come from an open and principled action successfully carried out. More important yet, many blacks who had not yet responded to or perhaps even heard of reparations will now be thinking and talking about the topic. Still more importantly (bigger than Seattle) both black and white activists scattered around the nation may begin to see the possibility of a _national_ issue that can be worked, acted on, locally and right now will be wondering -- can we grab on to that. It makes me feel good. It makes me think that just maybe, despite the fact that for 10 years now taking on almost any responsibility has triggered acute anxiety attacks, just maybe I should start talking to some of the people I worked with locally in the '80s to explore whether, burnt out as we are, maybe we should at least think and chat about possibilities.
Carrol