From: owner-jangle-poets-digest@smoe.org (jangle-poets-digest) To: jangle-poets-digest@smoe.org Subject: jangle-poets-digest V5 #60 Reply-To: jangle-poets@smoe.org Sender: owner-jangle-poets-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-jangle-poets-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk jangle-poets-digest Sunday, August 24 2003 Volume 05 : Number 060 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re: [JP] NYC [Gordon Nash ] [JP] MLK -- How to change the world: the viability of protest [Nieldsfore] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 23 Aug 2003 01:53:27 -0400 From: Gordon Nash Subject: Re: [JP] NYC >>Hi, JPs: >> I'm going to NYC next month to see the Dalai Lama speak in Central >> Park. I am going the day before and hope to enjoy some of the city. Do P&M >> have >> an actual store where they sell their vintage apparel? I'd love to shop >> there. >> Thanks, >> Deb >> >> No, the closest they came was Having a booth at Falcon Ridge a few years ago where they sold cloths. They did it at a few gigs too. Gordondon who forgot how he signs his name here. Check out the Kennedys' Official Home Page: http://www.KennedysMusic.com/ Fab photos, the Official tour diary, dashboard Buddha haiku, groovy merchandise...what more could you ask for? ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 23 Aug 2003 22:25:21 EDT From: Nieldsforever@aol.com Subject: [JP] MLK -- How to change the world: the viability of protest This tribute to MLK Jr. emerged out of my defense of constitutionally guaranteed liberty against neo-anarchism on another list I'm on that mixes it up with both religion and politics. I'm urging that we honor Dr. King this week. Bruce My resistance to neo-anarchism is coming from my pragmatism, not from my idealism. An unspoken side of some of these discussions is how close I actually am to the neo-anarchist agenda myself. I have despaired time and again of seeing the world changed for the better through the accepted channels of the political machinery of this world to achieve real, lasting peace and justice in society. I have committed to neither the Republican nor the Democratic Party, because I identify with neither. They are virtually indistinguishable in my own mind, and I don't like the Hobson's choice they offer to me as a voter. Similarly, my pragmatic reason for initially going along with the war, in the beginning, was that I viewed the present administration as unstintingly committed to going forward with its agenda of regime change in Iraq, and that nothing could alter that. Therefore the war was absolutely inevitable in my own mind, and accepting that fact was pure pragmatism, not idealism. One could just as well protest the rising of the sun each day by shaking one's fist at the sky, on the grounds of anti-sun idealism. Protest *can* be completely impotent, impractical, and futile. Yet there are two indicators of the viability of protest for us, even when our hopes for immediate substantive change remain dim. 1. Jesus and the prophetic tradition. Jesus stands within a tradition of prophetic urgency for the truth. Jesus stands for a God of justice who will not be mocked. No matter that Jesus' speaking the truth as a prophetic spokesperson for God earned him the contempt of his enemies and a violent death. Maybe in the short run Jesus' protest against the Powers that Be was impotent, impractical, and futile. But in the long run, "His truth is marching on." 2. Constitutionally guaranteed liberty. This imperfect system of government of ours leaves scope for improvement, for development, and for change for the better. If enough citizens of a free society *actually stood up for their liberty* --- instead of cowering like frightened, complacent sheep being led to be sheared like lambs to the slaughter --- the tyrants would all be sent packing, like Ceaucescu in Romania. We outnumber the bastards, if we only knew, and then did the right thing when the chance came. This week we honor the 40th anniversary of MLK Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech in the march on our nation's capital. I recommend that everyone who can, find a copy of this speech, and read Dr. King's stirring words. IMO King stands within *both* the prophetic tradition --- along with Jesus - --- *and* within the tradition of constitutionally guaranteed liberty --- along with the best and noblest of the founders of this country. This gives his message urgency even today. MLK Jr. is still a Man of Our Time. No matter that King's idealism was gunned down in Memphis, as a warning shot to any who might dare to stand up for what's right, like Jesus and like the founders of this country. Maybe King's protest, like that of Jesus, was impotent, impractical, and futile in the short run. But in the long run, "His truth is marching on." Stand for something. And if possible, stand up for what's right. Check out the Kennedys' Official Home Page: http://www.KennedysMusic.com/ Fab photos, the Official tour diary, dashboard Buddha haiku, groovy merchandise...what more could you ask for? ------------------------------ End of jangle-poets-digest V5 #60 *********************************