Think Globally, Don't Act At All
An e-mail going around the local lefty/progressive listservs that I frequent argues that the anti-war folks should target Joanie Mahoney's mayoral campaign for being pro-war in Iraq. The idea is she will deny personal support, but it will open a whole front for attacks on the Republican party on the war.
As a resident of the city and someone who works on issues of concern to neighborhoods in the city, I resent people using an important city election to fight a national issue. Ending the war is important, but so are the issues of the neighborhood--street crime, deteriorating housing stock, school dropout rate, bank redlining, poverty. I do not want the mayoral campaign of Syracuse to be turned into a referendum on the Iraq War.
Several groups, Peace Action & the Peace Council, have made attempts to link the war effort and militarism with the systematic de-funding of social needs and an increase in poverty. That is a positive, if long-term, struggle. An effort was made to work with local groups in a united front against the military/industrial complex. The current "swamp Mahoney" proposal is media grandstanding, local folks concerns are considered irrelevant.
Peace & justice activists have ignored city neighborhood issues for years. A progressive meeting I attended recently featured a discussion about the fear that many supposedly progressive people have of attending meetings in certain city neighborhoods. The e-mail in circulation ends with "The War Mongers are vulnerable and it is time to exploit them to promote peace." Unfortunately, the exploitation will be of local folks and their concerns.
As a resident of the city and someone who works on issues of concern to neighborhoods in the city, I resent people using an important city election to fight a national issue. Ending the war is important, but so are the issues of the neighborhood--street crime, deteriorating housing stock, school dropout rate, bank redlining, poverty. I do not want the mayoral campaign of Syracuse to be turned into a referendum on the Iraq War.
Several groups, Peace Action & the Peace Council, have made attempts to link the war effort and militarism with the systematic de-funding of social needs and an increase in poverty. That is a positive, if long-term, struggle. An effort was made to work with local groups in a united front against the military/industrial complex. The current "swamp Mahoney" proposal is media grandstanding, local folks concerns are considered irrelevant.
Peace & justice activists have ignored city neighborhood issues for years. A progressive meeting I attended recently featured a discussion about the fear that many supposedly progressive people have of attending meetings in certain city neighborhoods. The e-mail in circulation ends with "The War Mongers are vulnerable and it is time to exploit them to promote peace." Unfortunately, the exploitation will be of local folks and their concerns.
