joanna bujes wrote:
>
> At 06:13 PM 01/16/2003 -0500, you wrote:
> > >How can we expand the proportion of Americans consistently opposed to
> > imperialism from 9% to, say, 20-30%?
>
> Reinstitute the draft?
I've been arguing about this for nearly 35 years. Almost _no one_ in the anti-war movement was there because he thought it would keep _him_ out of the war or because she thought it would keep a son, brother, etc. out of the war. The draft does, indirectly, contribute to the growth of a movement in several ways.
1. It puts lots of people in the army who are good candidates for a G.I. movement.
2. It gives casualties more visibility.
3. Burning draft cards is a dramatic way to express opposition.
It had never occurred to me til this minute, but I think perhaps the best terms in which to describe the general collection of motives which draw people to an anti-war movement is the literary concept of Decorum. A given war just begins to strike a number of people as not "fitting" -- as a discordant with their sense of elementary order. And they get ticked off. And when enough of them get ticked off together they begin to infect others.
The local anti-war group just purchased a half page ad in the local paper to print the NION statement with over 110 local signatures. I just met the group's treasurer while shopping, & she told me that one contributor had called and asked how much more money we needed -- he would make up the difference!!! (The difference turned out to be $600 - and more money came in later so we're making a profit!) A lot of people really hate this war. We lack sufficient cadre locally, and collected the signatures and money for the ad mostly by word of mouth and e-mail. Had we the cadre and organization, I'm sure we could have collected hundreds more (both signers & dollars). One woman collected 8 signers from her church group (Catholic). (She found out about our group because I knew her through the local depressive & manic depressive support group.)
Carrol
Carrol
>
> Joanna