Do the Old Ways Still Work?
asserted
Ways → work → ?
Have you been recently scolded by an older peacenik about the good old days of street protests?
asserted
you → scold → protests
I have!
asserted
I → have → ?
Has an older beloved activist — a mentor, even — bemoaned “kids these days” and criticized their lack of political engagement?
asserted
activist → bemoan → engagement
Have you heard the dreaded preamble: “In my day, we…” — fill in the blank — marched, struck, organized?
asserted
we → hear → blank
These aging activists aren’t seeing the outrage.
asserted
activists → age → outrage
They aren’t seeing the opposition.
asserted
They → see → opposition
They aren’t seeing the resistance.
asserted
They → see → resistance
But it might just mean they aren’t looking in the right place.
uncertain
they → mean → place
Because there is plenty of resistance if you know where to look.
asserted
you → be → resistance
It is having a demonstrable impact on the daily lives of Americans.
asserted
It → have → Americans
Gas and heating fuel are and will continue to be more expensive.
asserted
Gas → continue → ?
The Iran War Energy Cost Tracker, a project of Brown University’s Climate Solutions Lab, estimates a nearly $1,000 war tax paid by each U.S. household.
asserted
Tracker → estimate → household
That is on top of the actual and massive price tag of military operations so far: nearly $40 billion and rising at a rate of $2 to 3 billion a month, with the projected final price tag in the trillions.
At the end of February, Trump’s war opened in typical Trumpian fashion with a massive bombardment that not only targeted Iranian leaders but also the smallest and most innocent Iranians: Operation Epic Fury had an elementary school in its sights, and the result was obliteration.
asserted
result → rise → sights
Raytheon-manufactured Tomahawk missiles slammed into the school in Minab, Iran, killing 156 civilians, most of them children.
asserted
most → manufacture → them
A U.N. panel now asserts that the U.S. attack was a war crime.
asserted
attack → assert → ?
As the war ground on, the resistance continued.
asserted
resistance → grind → ?
In March, Green Party candidate for Senate in North Carolina, former Marine, and member of Veterans for Peace, Brian McGinnis, disrupted a Senate hearing, shouting: “Americans do not want to fight this war for Israel.”
asserted
Americans → disrupt → Israel
(He suffered a broken arm at the hands of Capitol Police.)
asserted
He → suffer → Police
That same month, a top counterterrorism official, Joe Kent, resigned from the Trump administration, citing his opposition to the Iran war.
asserted
official → resign → war
More than 65 veterans and military family members were arrested inside a congressional building in April, protesting the illegal use of military force against Iran.
asserted
veterans → arrest → Iran
The list goes on and on and on.
asserted
list → go → ?
But we have not seen a reprise of the massive protests that marked the lead-up to the Iraq War 23 years ago.
asserted
that → see → War
Maybe it’s understandable.
asserted
it → ’ → ?
And maybe it’s OK.
asserted
it → ’ → ?
I love a good protest march.
asserted
I → love → march
I love the signs, the energy, the chanting, the music, coordinated outfits, mass-printed placards, and creative, handmade signs, a veritable rainbow of puns and alliteration and outrage glittered to cardboard and foamcore.
asserted
I → love → cardboard
I love the collection of newsletters and radical tracts and stickers and flyers for the next get-together that fill my backpack by the end.
asserted
that → love → end
I love the chance encounters with friends.
asserted
I → love → friends
(“OMG, I didn’t know you’d be here.”)
asserted
you → know → ?
For a time, long ago, I served on the United for Peace and Justice steering committee and played a very small role in organizing such big and beautiful anti-war marches.
asserted
I → serve → marches
But I have a friend in her 70s who recently announced: I will not march in an empty city on a weekend ever again.
asserted
I → have → weekend
And I agree.
asserted
I → agree → ?
Her point was that big protest marches are often planned to be convenient for working people, so they are scheduled on weekends.
asserted
they → plan → weekends
But the leaders we want to confront with our people power don’t work on the weekends.
asserted
we → want → weekends
In Connecticut, where I live, that means we end up marching in circles around a deserted downtown Hartford, our chants lost in the caverns of empty office buildings.
asserted
chants → live → buildings
That happens in Washington, D.C., too.
asserted
That → happen → Washington
The weekend that 200,000 people reportedly marched at a “No Kings” rally in the capital last fall, Trump was holding a $1 million-per-plate fundraiser at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
uncertain
Trump → march → Florida
That is not disrupting business as usual.
asserted
That → disrupt → business
It is not creating some alternative.
asserted
It → create → alternative
…and 116 more, not listed.
The Aporia
