Postcard from Chestnut Lodge

[H2O Man]

{1} "A function of free speech ….is to invite dispute. It may indeed best serve its high purpose when it induces ….unrest ….or even stirs people to anger."
--Justice Douglas

I found the above quote in Associate Justice Abe Fortas’s 1968 book, "Concerning Dissent and Civil Disobedience (We have an Alternative to Violence)." I had been thinking about Fortas’s book, after reading some of the curious reactions to the recent ad by MoveOn.org and the protest by Code Pink.

Sometimes I think it would be nice if other people read the book that the Washington Evening Sun recommended "that every demonstrator ought to carry around in his hip pocket. It is small enough, and it is important enough." Maybe they could loan it to the DUers who find MoveOn and Code Pink unsettling. It might even stir people to discuss the variety of options open to people to express their discontent.

My friend Phoebe Loosinhouse wrote a post on DU:GD: Politics yesterday about Code Pink. Phoebe compared Code Pink to rodeo clowns of the left, and said that, "Both groups are brave people in funny outfits who put themselves at risk in precarious and unpredictable situations in order to save others." I liked that, though a few people were stirred to anger by it.

Years ago, Norman Mailer compared Abbie Hoffman to a chimney sweep. "I don’t know what chimney sweeps looked like, but I always imagined them as having a manic integrity that glared out of their eyes through all the soot and darked-up skin. It was the knowledge that they were doing an essential job that no one else would do. Without them, everybody in the house would slowly, over the years, suffocated from the smoke."

{2} "The Constitution of the United States is a law for rulers and people, equally in war and peace, and covers with the shield of its protection all classes of men, at all times, and under all circumstances. No doctrine, involving more pernicious consequences, was ever invented by the wit of man than that any of its provisions can be suspended during any of the great exigencies of government. Such a doctrine leads directly to anarchy or despotism ….
--Justice Davis; 1866

The above quote is also found in Abe Fortas’s book, in chapter 3: "The Rights of the State and Its Duty in War as well as Peace." I am hopeful that even if people disagree about specific forms of public protest, that we can agree on the importance that the protections provided for protest by the Bill of Rights.

A while back, some Catholic Workers engaged in an act of civil disobedience, based upon the example set by Philip and Daniel Berrigan during the Vietnam War era. They were tried as the "St. Patrick’s Four" in federal court in Binghamton, NY. I can remember that some people on DU found their actions unsettling, and were as willing to say mean things about them, as they are to say negative things about MoveOn and Code Pink.

I attended part of their trial in Binghamton. Early on, there were many police, keeping the pro-war and anti-war groups separate outside the court house. Things were tense. But after a few days, everyone had become familiar with one another, and there were some very interesting discussions involving the pro-war and anti-war people. Although there were significant differences of opinion about the war in Iraq, by the end of the trial, everyone was able to agree that it is important for citizens to exercise their Constitutional rights.

We all probably have own ideas of what type of public protests would best advance our views on the war in Iraq. My own thought is of a large group of people who would stand, sit, and/or kneel in a public place, and remain silent while they read the Constitution, or the bible, koran, or gita, or even one of Erich Fromm’s books. I would hope that the people could pray, meditate, fantasize, and smile.

Of course, that is just my idea of a nice form of protest. I recognize that other people would view such a thing differently than I do. And that is one of the interesting things about attempts to communicate: people may intend one message, and others often interpret it differently.

If you could participate in any one type of public demonstration, what would it be like? What message would you intend to get across? How would other people view it?

Peace,
H2O Man

[babylonsister]

1. Ike Skelton needs to read Justice Douglas' quote, I'm thinking.

And REC'D! Another great post, H20 Man!

[H2O Man]

11. It might be

good to have a thread soon where we examine the differences in protection afforded "free speech" compared with the right to gather in public to address grievances, etc. There has long been more significant limitations, outlined by the legislative branch and upheld by the judicial branch, for public demonstrations, than for free speech and/or a free press.

Part of the planning that goes into public demonstrations should always include knowing what the laws are in relation to the demonstration. There are two general options, when it comes to such demonstrations: those that seek to not violate any law, and those that risk/involve violating the law. Of the second type, there are those that are intended to "test" laws on appeal -- we think of Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr -- and those that violate a law, where there is no chance of really challenging it, and hence the penalty is willingly accepted.

I think that the people who speak up in public hearings, as Code Pink does, know they will be kicked out of the public hall, and likely arrested. That shows me that they are brave enough to accept the consequences for their speaking their conscience. It is a specific type of demonstration, where Mr. Skelton has no real alternative than to take the steps he did. One has to be aware of all the props on the stage of the demonstration.

[myrna minx]

2. K&R. n/t

[rosesaylavee]

3. And yet MORE difficult questions this week!

You are asking what I would consider a meaningful public demonstration?

For me, that would be a march with a very large group of people - between 50,000 to 100,000. The message I would hope to have conveyed is that there is a very large group of people concerned about this issue - be it the War, the erosion of the Constitution, requesting the Impeachment of these Criminals or all of the above. People would view it as an amazing example of non-violent march and an exercise on how to utilize our rights to assemble and right to speak our minds.

Earlier this year I read here on DU of a group of vets who did some street theater in New York - acting as if they were on the streets of Baghdad, scoping out each doorway, treating their wounded, running through the streets as if they were on a scouting mission. I found that to be VERY powerful in bringing the reality and the absolute hell of war to people who may have not truly considered it before. I don't think I could do that effectively but I felt that that was very meaningful.

[H2O Man]

13. Just warming up.

Sometimes I feel entirely unqualified to participate in some of the raging debates on DU, and can only resort to asking these questions. By chance, it happens to be related to a few books that I am reading now, having had the opportunity to stock up at a recent library sale.

I think highly of street theater.

[rosesaylavee]

20. IMO, this is your highly valued role here on DU...

After a big to do, you help us dust up afterwards with a few succinct, well phrased questions that help synthesize and put into perspective the greater idea surrounding whatever event or issue is demanding our attention.

Your ability to draw us back and help us look at the whole problem from several angles is one reason I, and I am sure several others, seek you out in a storm.

I really think your essays you post here would make a great book. I hope you are considering that.

[TacticalPeek]

4. Class A's

George Harris sticks carnations in gun barrels during an antiwar demonstration at the Pentagon in 1967. (By Bernie Boston -- The Washington Evening Star)

[H2O Man]

14. That is such

a wonderful photograph!

[Me.]

5. Code Pink Makes Me Think Of Fools

in the time honored, or Shakespearean, sense. They being the ones who held the wisdom, not the kings they served.

As for Move-On, I thought Eli on Hardball made sense when he said that if they had done such an ad when Powell went to the UN they surely would have rec'd hell for it, yet the world now knows what bunk Powell served up that day. Now Petreus has told the big lie and there is more of an outcry than there was over Powell's lie. Newspapers all across the country reported it as such. Move-On did a good job.

I didn't see any type of outcry at Ari, neocon, Fleischer's ad promoting the war.

I read where Admiral Fallon called Petreus an 'ass kissing little chicken shit' to his face and, where Petreus has said he'd like to run for pres. in the future. So really, what that report was all about was his ambition. Between the two, Code Pink has more integrity.

[Me.]

9. Afternoon

:kick:

[H2O Man]

15. When the Beatles

were awarded their MBEs, a few grumpy old men returned theirs in protest. John responded by pointing out the Beatles got their's for making people happy, and the old protestors for killing people. He believed the Beatles deserved their's more.

[GliderGuider]

6. a die-in and a bed-in

Both strangely life-affirming.

A die-in shocks the heck out of me. It is powerful street theatre. This image is in Montreal, but we often do them in front of the US Embassy in Ottawa.




A bed-in is a hoot! It generates wonderful energy for your cause.
This is Amnesty International's virtual bed-in for peace in Darfur. Wheee!

[rosesaylavee]

8. Very powerful.

Thanks for sharing this. I had never heard of it before.

[riderinthestorm]

7. This is a picture of me from two weeks ago at an anti-war/peace vigil

This was held in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, one of the reddest towns in very, very red Dupage County. It is wealthy and snobbish - I grew up here and live nearby.

By day I am a farmer and at any point from sunrise to sundown I am wearing riding gear or jeans, running shoes, teeshirt and an old baseball cap. For this rally however I put on a trendy black silk shirt, denim skirt and expensive flip flops. I wore jewelry, nail polish, and the expensive sunglasses. I wanted to look just like the people in Glen Ellyn - I wanted them to look at me and know that people just like them were protesting the war. I also took my largest sign and even though it was a windy day and it's hard to hold on a day like that, I wanted the message to be bold.

It worked. This pic made the front page of the local newspapers.

I believe you must do what you think will work, for you and/or your community to get the message out. If I'd been dressed as a clown, the local conservative newspapers would have never printed the picture. But I believe they printed it cause I looked like them.

In Washington, politics IS a form of theater. I believe MoveOn and Code Pink were entirely appropriate for THEIR community. Bravo.

[H2O Man]

16. Thank you

for posting that! What a nice picture!

Some of my favorite memories are of the days that I used to live/work on farms. It wasn't as fun on bitter cold February mornings, of course, but they are times I look back on with fondness. What type of farm are you on?

[Chalco]

10. What does--A Postcard from Chestnut Lodge mean?

I live less that a block from the Chestnut Lodge, the former mental asylum.

[H2O Man]

12. Very good.

Many years ago, a group of people including Abe Fortas, Erich Fromm, Frieda Fromm-Reichmann, cousin Harry Stack Sullivan, and Edward Hall used to be associated with Chestnut Lodge and also the William Alanson White Institute. They are among my favorite authors. Hall, for example, wrote a classic on communication, "The Silent Language." I was trying to make a brief comment on a specific form of communication, which comes from a specific region of my mind.

[bleever]

21. Are you familiar

with a book called The Tacit Dimension by Michael Polanyi?

I'm not sure if that's relevant to what you're talking about here, and I'll look forward to reading the Hall work, but Polanyi's book was pivotal in my own study of how people know things.

[lostnfound]

23. Don't take this wrong but I think I

love you. :)

You have many moments of kindness and hours worth of knowledge to share. Thank you for this and thousands of other posts.

[LiberalEsto]

18. In Rockville?

I'm in Derwood.
:hi:

[byronius]

17. K&R.

[puebloknot]

19. Enthroned in my chair in front of my computer ...

... I have sometimes been a bit put off by Code Pink's modus operandi. :) And when people decided to figure out practical ways on this forum to make impeachment happen, and someone suggested doing a day in the park, with balloons and face painting and clowns and music, my reaction was that people dying in an illegal war constitutes a degree of seriousness that deserves more than that!

But what do I know? *They* are out there, and *I* am sitting at home, making judgements. I suppose today I might also be put off if I saw a modern-day Gandhi striding down the road in a loin cloth, with walking stick in hand. Even someone dressed in a priest's garb is shown disrespect, as we've just seen. Ridicule is a major tool to demean dissenters, so if we're going to be ridiculed anyway, why not go "pink"!

I participated in a MoveOn peace event here in Santa Fe, and we held candles, did a brief visualization, and headed for the Plaza. Along the way, a woman with strong Texas drawl looked at me with disdain and invited me to leave the country. I wasn't dressed funny, and I was just walking in silence, holding a candle. One man's foolishness is another's dead serious means of achieving change. I simply replied that it is *my* country, as much as hers! And I felt a bit empowered that I was on the street, briefly, and had made a calm and reasoned response, rather than being provocative.

More than the *means* of protest, I'd like to see *sustained* peaceful protest. I'd like to see the 70% of the citizens who want this war ended wearing pink or orange every time they leave the house, and organized boycotts that would be *noticed*! I don't know how to make that happen, but there are those who do.

My own thought is of a large group of people who would stand, sit, and/or kneel in a public place, and remain silent while they read the Constitution, or the bible, koran, or gita, or even one of Erich Fromm’s books. I would hope that the people could pray, meditate, fantasize, and smile.

I'd like to see your idea in a permanent format, where people agree to come in for half a day, then are replaced by another "shift," so that the protest never ends. Where? How? Permit needed? In one location, say D.C., or in small groups all over the country? I'd like the main message to be that the Constitution is not a partisan document, but belongs to us all. Seeing people sitting in silence, reading, could provoke curiosity. Having a periodic "out loud" reading of the Constitution and Bill of Rights might speak to the shut-down consciousness of anyone passing by. Might!

Reminding people that the same fascism that overtook Germany 70 years ago is happening here, again, doesn't seem too effective in the public domain. Only "We the Seasoned" seem to understand the import of all that. But when I hear the Constitution read, it brings me to tears. The words in that document have a timeless resonance which need to become our mantra, a reminder to those who are busy and may have forgotten. We need an ongoing "War and Remembrance" campaign...until they come home.

Here in Santa Fe, Dennis Kucinich sang "America the Beautiful" to us, before he began speaking. I thought I'd become too jaded to be moved by that old patriotic piece, but I was amazed at my own tearful response. Under the rush and bother of our everyday lives, We the People are starved for meaning, an antidote to the crassness that public discourse has become.

Great post. Thanks!

[TheDoorbellRang]

22. How many protests against this war have been ignored, underreported, or underestimated?

I remember the Viet Nam war protests shown on the news night after night. Everyone knew there was powerful anti-war sentiment. How many who don't frequent internet news sites are aware there have even been anti-war protests? I can certainly understand why Code Pink felt compelled to draw attention during the hearings; if they had not, would the cameras have shown protestors? Would any news story report protestors?

Someone up-thread showed a "die-in" in front of the U.S. embassy in Canada. I could see an effective protest being done in D.C. with a "die-in" where the participants did something to identify themselves with the dead in Iraq -- both soldiers and civilians. A 100,000+ crowd of "dead" people would be "fresh" enough to make the news, maybe.

[Senator]

24. Dunno about 100K -- But you can see a DC Die-In tommorrow

Here's where they're signing folks up.

--