By Mark Svetz

WILLIMANTIC –July/August 2010

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Local Activists Look at Peace Movement

      As I read the newspapers these days, I want to ask the question: What has happened to the Peace Movement in the US? I put that question to a few of my friends who are actively involved in political movements. I thought I would share some of their thoughts.

Honestly, I first thought of asking these friends about the Peace Movement in the hopes it would provide some antidote to my own frustration and loss of hope. Like so many, it seems, I had hopes that the election of a democratic president might make some difference in our nation's aggressive and oppressive posture in the world. Barack Obama represented change on so many fronts. He was the first African American president and the first post-baby-boom president, bringing a new generation to the White House. It did seem for a moment that change was in the air.

 

        Randy McMahon, a teacher, artist and activist from Willimantic, joined the US Navy Reserves in the late 1960s, in order "to avoid carrying an M16 in the rice paddies of South Vietnam." Soon after being released from active duty, Randy went to a talk at Yale, where he heard several anti-war speakers. He immediately joined Vietnam Veterans Against the War. He has been an activist ever since.

       Chris Demorit is a writer, host of a radio talk show on WECS and is active in the Northeast Connecticut Coalition for Peace and Justice. He "got active" while he was a student at Eastern Connecticut State University during the beginning of the Gulf War in 1990. Chris helped form the group called People for Peace at ECSU. He also helped organize and continues to participate in the Peace Vigil, going on for several years every Thursday from 5 - 6 p.m., at the corner of Jackson and Main Streets, across from the Frog Bridge.

            Randy McMahon believes the wars being waged now (and for the foreseeable future?) and the economic problems they bring will ultimately generate the opposition that will eventually bring them to an end.

"The movement will come back when it becomes apparent who Obama really is and when the pain of recession and three wars becomes unbearable," Randy says of the future of the movement.

 

 

I wondered, in the face of the depressing news lately, how activists feel about it all. I have noticed that my friends and I spend a lot less time talking about politics than we used to. Let's see what these local activists have to say about it.

"I spoke to a number of friends regarding this and we all came to the same conclusion: the anti-war movement is dead," Maria Yates sums up her sense of the anti-war movement today.  "I'm sure that statement will upset some activists out there, because there still are people doing some wonderful and dedicated work.  However, from an overall perspective...well, I'm just not feeling it."

Maria believes the economic conditions, making it harder and harder for families to afford housing, education, health care and other necessities of life, mean we all have less and less time to think about these issues.

               Chris brings to my mind the words of my friend Tony Clark, who often said to me: "Do something! Even if it's wrong!" Let's let his words end this story on a somewhat hopeful note.

 

      "Call me a skeptic, but I feel that if we can't even control our government locally, how can we be expected to have any control over their global actions?" Maria said. "But maybe some good can still come out of this. Perhaps people will use this time to turn inward, to strengthen and unify locally.  I feel, to a certain extent, that this is already happening. With our neighbors and friends losing jobs and housing, who among us is really heartless enough to turn a blind eye?"

 

    "And what with our own economy crashing down around us and the everyday violence of living in poverty overseen by a police state," she says, "who has time to think about poor Afghan farmers being forced to grow a certain lucrative crop or face death."

Randy McMahon and Chris Demorit agree with Maria on this point. Both see the anti-war movement as tired, overworked and outgunned.

"Today, the anti-war movement is broken," Randy points out. "The geniuses in Washington have figured out how to do their stealth engagements quietly and the American people can stay asleep. Far too many Americans think Barrack Obama is anti-war. He is not. In his one year as president he has sent many times the number of missiles into Pakistan than Bush did in 8 years."