[Mb-civic] PY and BY statements

[Ian]

PY and BY statementsPeter:

Ian Alterman here.  Blessings and Peace.

I agree with your sentiments.  Unforuntately, since my Internet security is a bit overzealous (it does not permit ANY attachments through), I did not get the pieces from Bethany and yourself.  Any chance you could paste them into the text of an e-mail and re-send them?  I'd be happy to give you my home e-mail address so it does not end up in hundreds of peoples mailboxes.  My e-mail is ialterman at nyc.rr.com.

Thanks.
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: peteryarrow 
  To: Peter Yarrow 
  Sent: Saturday, November 13, 2004 9:53 AM
  Subject: [Mb-civic] PY and BY statements


  Dear Bro's and Sisters,

  Forgive me for sending this to you along with other recipients, but it is meant to be personal, and somewhat confidential, as it reveals my very open and honest thoughts, as well as those of Bethany. 

  If I've sent this email on to you earlier this week, please forgive me for the repetition, but I have just compiled a list of special personal friends  (of whom you are one) who I feel will, whether we agree or not in the issues addressed, be receptive and interested in my take, and that of Bethany's, and perhaps engage in an ongoing dialogue with me as we see where we can find common ground amongst allies and opponents, and where we must put all our efforts into the task of stemming an unwelcome tide - and redirecting the river's flow with our own initiatives. 

  If you are not comfortable with my sending you what I intend to be a personal,  non-work related email, please do let me know and I will take your name off this list for future exchanges. However, also please accept my apologies -  and please do remember that it is sent in the spirit of engagement with many who are not entirely in sync with my thoughts, but whose input I am seeking as well. 


  I believe that in the wake of the election, we now have seen a new face of the "enemy within and without". As we regain our energy to carry on, we must acknowledge that, in startling ways that we never could have anticipated, the emperor has no clothes, yet this emperor parades in imagined finery with seemingly unmitigated assurance, a false (to my mind) sense of legitimacy and hard-to-stomach moral rectitude. 

  No real mandate was achieved, the nation is almost evenly divided, and the winds that shifted at the last moment were hardly an indication of more than the results of amazingly adept manipulation by Carl Rove in the selling of fear and smear, and the combined vicissitudes of fortune which included the untimely video by Osama Ben Laden which was similar to a raising of the danger alerts in its effect, which have historically given Bush another 2 point edge of acceptance (the margin, approximately, of his win.)

  This compels us to come to terms with what we of a progressive persuasion in America, are up against, and will be up against, in the coming years, in all probability, far beyond the next presidential term of 4 years To one degree of another , the shift in the Supreme Court's perspective, which might last way into the future, will in all probability haunt us for a long long time, whatever the outcome of the next presidential election. 

  Nevertheless, and because of this, we must gird our loins for the ongoing (good) fight, in new and different ways, never forsaking a fair and righteous path,  never subscribing to the idea that the ends justify the means, or stooping to the level of the loathsome tactics of our opponents saying, "If they can do it, we can do it". 

  An election is just an election. The good fight is a life-long engagement. The contravention of our beliefs in our adopted tactics and our acceptance of process will take us nowhere but into the hands of our internal and external enemies of spirit.

  For now, please allow me to offer you two thought pieces I wanted to share with you; mine and Bethany's. Bethany's is stronger and more direct, so I'm a happy daddy seeing the tradition of the good fight continue and strengthen through her, and other young people's efforts and ignited fire, disbelief and determination to find ways to turn the tide back to sanity, fairness and justice. 

  Bethany is certainly emerging into a really powerful organizer. I know that she will be engaged in ongoing post-election essential efforts to rearticulate a vision for America, and find a process for achieving that vision.

  Her efforts may now be channeled primarily through new internet and other groups, as they find other than straight electoral-political ways to articulate a new voice, and new methods for advocacy, in this post-election season and beyond.

  Just as music and movement politics helped light the way in the 1960's for a shift in the nation's party politics, so now do I think that similar kinds of guideposts must formulate the new options to be pursued in the electoral political sphere.

  Some new thoughts as of this last week:

  At present, the Democratic Party is probably too mired in gridlock, too frightened, too confused, and too willing to wage a campaign not to lose, rather than to truly addressing the task of winning back America. Rather than trying to see what perspective exists and appeal to it, we  must ultimately build a counter-perspective from the grass roots up, so that literally tens of millions of people will not, once again, vote against their own, clear, best interests.

  I'm not saying that there are no new charismatic and compelling new voices speaking from within the party, Barrack Obama being one of them. I'm simply saying for that kind of voice to be given the leadership of the Democratic Party, a lot of work will have to be done to engage the grass roots through direct "cultural intervention", and that intervention will be a necessary and central part of winning back our country's heart. 

  Such cultural intervention is an essential component to countering the culture of fear that emerged from Rove's Goebbels-esque manipulation. No accommodation, no deal-making with the Bush perspective, will ever win back the frightened spirits that tipped the balance in this last election. Now they are too entrenched, too committed to the current point of view, too unwilling to let go of the ghastly security blanket that will be the dominant new American way till we come to our senses and rescue ourselves.

  We had little to fear, but fear itself, and so the concocted Bush-Rove illusionary fear won the last election. We can only emerge from this incredibly dangerous time if we can come to realize that this Bush-Rove fear is indeed an illusion, and come to terms with the fact that if we do not change course, articulate a new vision, we will permanently, at least in the foreseeable future, lose our ethical and moral national identity as a nation.

  Indeed, carry on........ or sloggin' on, which is more what I'm doing today (not such a good lyric, but certainly more accurate for the moment).

  In solidarity, and with love, in Peace, as always

  Peter





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