Carl Remick wrote:
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>
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> I would suggest heeding Doug's wise advice, offered in a different context
> on the list a short time ago: "Given the state of things right now, it's
> more imperative than ever that people on 'our' side not be naive,
> obfuscating, sentimental, or stupid." In this instance, I think such a
> stance requires calling for an end to all U.S. financial and military
> support of Israel immediately.
>
Calling requires (a) a microphone (b) power for amplification (c) a hall (d) people in the hall (e) a strategy by which the people in the hall can respond to the call
But under present conditions the only people who will come to the hall, no matter how you phrase the invitation, will be people who already agree, and there aren't enough of them now to carry out (e) above.
Moreover, we don't have a hall and we don't have the resources to build one.
Moreover, the problem of phrasing the invitation actually hides a lot of other problems: like having a mailing list for the invitations. People usually don't even open invitations unless the sender is someone they know and expect to provide the kind of satisfaction that they are already familiar with.
It is just so fucking easy to sit and dream up what "we" (whoever we is) should say or call for. It is so fucking hard to find and/or build a responsive audience willing to listen and capable of acting powerfully.
And don't say (as Doug has frequently said in response to posts like this), "Well then, should we just sit around and do nothing?" That is pointless because "calling" for this or that is just a disguised way of sitting around and doing nothing while pretending to oneself that one is doing something.
Carrol