Letters to the Editor
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obsolete
"All [the Democrats] care about is power," she said.
Yeah, that's basically true. Then, I sometimes wonder if peace activists don't care about power, in the sense of the ability to actually affect anything, nearly enough, or if they just care about maintaining the smug self-righteousness of the powerless.
I've spent a lot of time yelling that "hey hey ho ho" crap. I've also chanted "the people united will never be defeated" in groups small enough to make it clear that the people were united in their indifference to us. Ultimately, the only attention the media gave to any peace demonstration I've been a part of wasn't to the chants, street theatre or even celebrities who've shown up--it was the one asshole burning a flag (though, since I've never seen anybody do that, except in the TV coverage, I suspect in most cases it's been either staged or stock footage). Has Code Pink gotten any attention whatsoever in the mainstream media? Until now, I haven't even seen them in the alternative media. While I'm sure their hearts are in the right place, if they can offer up any evidence that street protests aren't obsolete, I'd love to see it.
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Bad cops
So Code Pink is acting out the part of "bad cop" of the left. Part of that schtick is that you aren't loved. That's just how it is.
The love goes to the more moderate activists who quietly pull legislators aside and whisper to them while pantomiming little crazy circles around their ears and pointing to you, the one who causes all the trouble, and shrugging in a "what can we do?" sort of way.
On a good week, tag-teaming like that, you get a little traction.
Cintra Wilson asks the right question — how do you place yourself in the position of permanent antagonist and then expect to be heroes?
And punk replies: screw heroes. Make trouble.
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Because of Salon and the Media
Where are the stories in Salon about less over-the-top anti-war groups? If someone or a group doesn't have something unusual about them you ignore them, as does everyone else. You just put Code Pink's name in your headline. Mission Accomplished. "Code Sensible" will have to wait for a different media climate.
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Hand to god
I thought the anti war movement was essentially dead. Maybe Code
Pink is silly because they know that too.
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Screeching asshole behaviour
I wasn't alive during the Sixties, but didn't that Hippie shit backfire and set liberalism back a generation? If it failed then why would it work now? Especially in today's hyper media oriented society?
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Garbage article
This is just foolish tripe. I guess that's Cintra Wilson's schtick, but its embarassing, uninformed hit job on one particular peace group. What exactly did Code Pink do to deserve that.
Losers like Wilson who make money providing supposedly witty, but actually bland, commentary are certainly more to blame for the failure of the peace movement than actual activists. If you actually mattered you would do something, not trash people like Medea Benjamin.
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@Redtiger
Did you actually read the article? You know, like, to the end?
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So what's the alternative?
Write your rep? That's worked awesomely. Face it, until a lot of Americans (not just a few anarchists) take to the streets, set cars on fire and win a guerrilla war against the National Guard, aint a whole lot gonna change. I don't think Code Pink will amount to a hill-a-beans, but at least they are doing something. Sorry they get on Wilson's nerves :/
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And working within the system has been so effective?
Thus so far we have all these years of war in Iraq, all these people dead, the war funded by congress again and again. Cute when people say that they are against it but keep throwing money at it. The most recent FISA debacle makes it pretty clear where most of the Democrats are on constitutional rights and how the erosion of those rights allows us to torture people and the war to continue.
I am at the point where I think voting, complaining, contributing, and being a loyal Democrat just isn't going to do it. If we end the war in Iraq by shifting our troops to Afganistan, violating the wishes of Pakistan, and giving Israel coverage to bomb Iran, then having a Democratic president accomplishes what for peace?
I confess to being against the war from the beginning but other than going to a rally and a couple of meetings, I didn't actually protest. Maybe I should have.
What now?
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Just what Cheney likes
Let's face it, Code Pink is probably Cheney's favorite protest organization
1) It alienates others who might otherwise be symapthetic
2) It poses absolutely no threat to US hegemony
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The Anti-War Movement Would do Well to Repudiate the Anti-American Elements Within its Ranks
The problem that much of the mainstream anti-war movement has had in getting traction (despite the unpopularity of the war) has been the prominent presence among activists of people who are not so much anti-war as they are transparently anti-American, or at least opposed to the mere existence of American power. Code Pink is a case in point. They're rallying against any move toward sanctions on Iran, which is totally self-defeating. They say they're anti-war, but trying to eliminate diplomatic and economic leverage narrows the choices available to American leaders and makes war more, not less likely. It's a patently anti-American stance that has NOTHING to do with promoting peace.
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hamburger hapler
Hippies were not political, Einstein. So "that hippie shit", in the redneck space where there would be a brain if one were present, means serious civil rights and anti-war protests are the same thing as Woodstock and Altamont. Dumbass. The coalition of labor, students, militant religious leaders (like King and Berrigan) were very instrumental in the passage of the civil rights and voting rights acts, and in turning the national tide against the war in Vietnam. What's lacking today is number. People, absent the draft breathing down their necks, don't care enough to bother. Shop. Fumble with the channel changer. Swill Buttwiper and eat Fat Food. Code Pink does have some whiff of Wavy Gravy with a serious case of PMS, but at least they're out there fighting the good fight. I wish them well. It won't work. There were worldwide protests as large or larger than anything ever seen, just before we went to war in Eye-rack. The media snored. The protests died down. There are a dozen or so hardcore peace activists that come to the town square every Friday at commute time. On the war anniversaries, many more turn out- hundreds, including me- and most people honk in support. It would take hundreds of thousands clogging major cities, week in and week out, to change things in any meaningful way. I, sadly and seriously, doubt it. jeff