Two Followups

Two followups went into a bar. No, that's not it.

The feeding tube frenzy has lost a lot of hot air very quickly, as polls indicate an overwhelming majority of Americans---yes, even Americans---are opposed to Congressional intervention, and believe it was done for political rather than moral reasons. They also support the court's prior decision to allow the body that once was Terri Schiavo to quietly and painlessly die.

The media however persists in hyping the story, and using inflammatory and inaccurate vocabulary, like "starved." The woman isn't being starved; it implies she feels starvation. She doesn't, at least in any way it can be measured, as compared with other people. It requires a rudimentary consciousness, which likely expired, along with the person called Terri, more than a decade ago.

But also this weekend, though you might not know it, there were hundreds of peace demonstrations all over the world and across the United States---yes, even the United States. Some activists are scratching their heads at the lack of media coverage, and muttering darkly about conspiracy to displace anti-war in Iraq images with feeding tube related photo ops. Though it's likely this weekend's carefully planned frenzy was timed to coincide with the actual withdrawing of the feeding tube and the absense from Washington of most of Congress, the coincidence with the antiwar weekend could not have displeased our Roving reportmaster.

We marched in a driving rain (well, okay the rain let up by the time the march actually started) with more than a thousand protestors, including entire families, and folks who marched with their bicycles, dogs and goats. Two very nice goats they were too. There were the usual signs, some still thought provoking, but our favorite was a bumper sticker on the side of a truck we saw when we marched past: "Somewhere in Texas, a village is missing its idiot."

Some activists have since gone online to suggest that the era of the peace protest is over, it is no longer effective, the media doesn't bother covering them, and there is not enough "message discipline" to make the wingnut-dominated news. Some suggest switching to an emphasis on economic issues.

Well, maybe, but...yes, the war protests were underreported, but they always, always were. More so this time? Yes. Why? Not new. The protests to keep a severly brain damaged woman artificially alive were new, and they had striking images. But for all that those images dominated media, there is still a higher percentage of Americans against the Iraq war than in favor of the action taken in the Schiavo case.

Message discipline? Diversity is part of the message. It's the big progressive tent, and all who are peaceful are welcome. Peace demos, like civil rights, always had several functions: promoting the cause, promoting solidarity among the protestors, building a community, giving people heart because they see others willing to march for what they believe in. This is the support activists were trying to build in the 60s---you know, Another family for peace. These are the constituents, the voters and the contributors. And the Next Generation. On all counts except direct political effect, the peace demos did fine. Frankly after the election we were surprised that so many people turned out.

Do we rely on these demos for political impact? No. Do we switch the emphasis to economics? Maybe, but that's not the whole answer, even though that's becoming conventional progressive wisdom. The rabid right has proven that economics is not always the main concern.
(Wouldn't hurt to check the reviews of a couple of pertinent books over at Books in Heat.)

So what do we do? Add specific protests to the calendar on justice in the economic and social realms. Be creative. But be appropriate. This weekend was the anniversary of the start of the Iraq war, and of the global demonstrations against it, before and during that war. It was appropriate to emphasize anti-war, pro-peace messages.

Sometimes preaching to the congregation is appropriate. It's what preachers do. Most of the people we know of who marched or attended vigils wanted simply to bear witness, to stand for light in a dark time. These were often family oriented events. There's a place for that. And there's a place for more specific political protests designed and carried out by committed activists.