[Dialogue] Democratic volunteerism??

[jim rippey]

>From Jim Rippey:  I don't want to see Dialogue avoid postings of election concerns, as some have suggested.

I lean toward the attitudes of Karl Hess and KroegerD.  Like Kroeger, I use the delete button.  But often I find coments or articles on Dialogue that I don't find elsewhere.  Hess's dramatic humanization of African death figures is an example.  And, yes, I really appreciate when sources are quoted.  I do read and support Move On.  I get and read lots of Democratic appeals.  I acknowlege that I am only an ICA fellow traveler and don't have the extensive training or background most of you have.  But I know enough about OE/ICA to have faith (not blind faith) in much of what I find here.  I share many of the values evidenced in Dialogue postings. I don't AS OFTEN feel that way about Democratic appeals or what Move On promotes.  I do feel a religious imperative to work against the direction the Bush administration is taking the country.

For instance, in our recent discussion "Re: Kerry's wife," I took to heart David Dunn's comment.  I had suggested one approach Sunny could take toward the offensive Teresa Heinz Kerry bashing email her mother had sent was "can't we just avoid this subject?"  

David wrote:  "It's the 'can't we just avoid this subject?' that I don't believe is satisfactory these days. My perception of our situation in American is that it is a moment with more dire outcomes than permit 'avoiding this.' Are we not at  a moment of life and death choices for our nation?"

Yes, I believe we are at that moment.  I still think that "can't we just avoid this subject" may be the best we can do with an elederly loved one.  But I see too many of us, me included, using that attitude to avoid confrontation.  So David's comment has got me thinking differently.  I still believe name calling and shouting matches are counter productive, but I think we must struggle to find ways to get our questions and our values heard.  Karl Hess' African death figures are in that dimension.  

Grover Norquist, President Bush's influential financial adviser, is on record wanting to reduce the federal government to the point "it's small enough to drown in a bath tub."  Of course, the quick way to do that is to give our richest citizens huge tax cuts.  (Who then contribute record amounts to keep Bush in power.)  Unfortunately, what gets drowned in the bathtub are things like affordable health care for the millions of children without insurance, or serious funding of the much touted "no child left behind" program, or (as here in Nebraska) funding to provide enough social workers in the foster care system to eliminate the alarming child death rate we've been experiencing.  At present, we don't have enough security inspectors to check more that a tiny fraction of the millions of sealed cargo containers that enter our ports regularly.  Are we really safer from terrorism when the extra inspectors we need get drowned in Norquist's bathtub?.  

These complaints just scratch the surface.  Don't we have enough creativity and gumption to devise ways to get these concerns heard by at least a few of the conservative Bush supporters who really are compassionate.  

One last example:  On July 29, we were asked to read and comment on Vance Engleman's article, "Ghandi on Terrorism."  It is powerful and I was particularly impressed with the section on how the Iraq war and our support of Israel's military occupation of Palestinian territory increases terrorism and opposition to us.  This is directly in opposition to the administration's claims that we are safer now.  I want to figure how to make this idea digestible enough that at least some Bush supporters can hear it.  Maybe someone else will do it faster and better.  We should be trying.  I'm thankful Dialogue prompted me to find and save this article.  You can find it at this address if you missed it the first time around.  

http://twegner.dyndns.org/wedgeblade/GANDHI_ON_TERRORISM.txt

I vote we continue to share our thoughts on how this election matters and what we can do about it.  If it isn't where you want to be, just use your delete key.