Found on the Alt2War website:Sick Of It Day is a day for everybody who is SICK OF THE LIES, SICK OF THE CORRUPTION, SICK OF THE WAR to make their statement in a way it will really count—CALL IN SICK on March 19, the 5th anniversary of the Iraq invasion!
In our own Declaration of Independence, it says, “Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed…”
Calling in sick on March 19, “Sick Of It Day” is a powerful way for every one of us to withdraw our consent from a government that continues an immoral, illegal and SICK war.
Join us! Call in sick! Withdraw your consent! Stop the war!
I am beginning to think that it's more effective, more attention-getting, more "out there" to simply participate in local, state and federal government and use those platforms to lobby against the war than it is to protest outside official changes.
This is a new opinion for me, and it seems pretty counterintuitive. Who knows - people are pretty good at ignoring folks standing on the street these days. It seems like news of anti-war folks simply changing policy by taking over official channels would be more shocking than another protest in front of the federal courthouse or local recruiting center or whatever.
Thoughts?
Friday, February 22, 2008
[Iraq] Sick of It - March 19th
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6 comments:
*While I am all for taking a sick day, I think that you may be on to something. I think a lot of young people take to the streets protest and create a bit of a self fulfilling prophecy. Perhaps the thought that there is no place for young people in government is what keeps many from attempting to be active in a way that could be meaningful.
*this thought may not be fully coherent...it is late.
Thanks for the heads up.
Hells yeah I'm sick of it. And I honestly believe ending the war and bringing the troops home is the best thing for Iraq. I don't buy the blood bath argument. because why should I? The people who use it are the same people who've lied before.
Bring the troops home and bring the refugees home.
Chase,
Thanks for the comment. It stirred something: Is one of the (possibly unintended) side effects of protesting outside official channels the ceding of "government" as either a neutral or hostile space?
I think it is. Of course, government, including local government, IS often a hostile space for young people and/or anti-war folks. But I think we need to take a page from the playbook of many other countries (not to to mention Republicans) and get over the idea that government should be neutral. It needs to be aggressively hijacked in pursuit of the goals of the left, dammit.
Usual caveats about blogging at 2:20 AM apply.
I've "taken it to the streets" in the past. I was in PDX in 2002 when the police stormtroopers attacked a peaceful crowd of anti-war demonstrators.
That said, I've pretty much come to the conclusion that street protest are a total waste of time.
Grassroots organizing and working to elect candidates who represent our views is how to affect change.
The only two things that politicians pay attention to are money and votes. If you aren't delivering either, you can march up and down the street till you drop from exhaustion and they won't care.
Unfortunately, knocking on doors or manning phone banks isn't all that exciting nor as immediately gratifying as standing in front of the courthouse with a "Fuck Bush" sign.
Conservatives have pretty much run the tables on liberals since 1980, and you hardly ever see them staging demonstrations.
I do, however, like the sick day idea. But I've heard my boss reads this blog though, so if I don't show up on the 19th she probably won't buy that I was sick.
Bernstein,
There's a criticism of marches and rallies that I've heard with increasing frequency in the last several years: Such events are supposed to be the culmination of lots of hard work, the demonstration of already existing power, the results of grassroots organizing - not the event that creates power itself.
Or something like that.
Dennis,
That's a good point about demonstrations being the culmination of organizing, not the start.
The knee jerk reaction of a lot of people is to grab a sign and head to the street instead of calling their congressman or gathering signatures for a petition for a ballot measure to right a wrong.
You're right, liberals need to takeover government to be effective. The media pays little if any attention to anti-war protesters, but when a city council votes for the impeachment of Bush ,or like they did in Berkley to tell the Marine recruiters they weren't welcome, that grabs national media attention.
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