Word here from another lurker. I was happy for the
return of this list. It is a pleasure for me to be
able to read the thoughts of Joe McDonald, Stew
Albert, William Mandel and Marty Jezer, all people I
admire.
None of them have the access to the media that David
Horowitz has now.
I am always fascinated by people like Phillip Abbott
Luce, Mark Lane, Nat Hentoff, and Steve Allen. They
have all found it attractive to embrace the rightwing
to some extent. Their explanations are always
revealing.
David Horowitz is the same person he has always been.
The only difference is the political ideology
that he has chosen to embrace.
I am not an academic or intellectual, nor was I a
"leader" in the 60s.
I am what I was then, a community activist. One thing
I have learned over the years, is that things aren't
as clear cut as they seem.
As the rest of the people on this list I can only
speculate upon what would have happened if Humphrey
had won, or what the role of the left was in either
shortening or lengthening the duration of the Vietnam
War. I think part of the problem is that doing the
grunt work in a movement
can be frustrating and easy for some to abandon.
Upping the ante may have provided excitement to those
in the "vanguard," but may have left those we were
trying to organize behind.
We were very impatient in the 60s. In my union local
it has taken us fifteen years to get out a corrupt and
ineffective leadership. But we did it. In New York
City, where I live there, is an ongoing struggle to
maintain rent protection for working people. It is a
protracted stuggle. It takes a lot of hard work, grunt
work to survive
Right now here we are fighting against police
brutality and the horrors of racism. There are no quck
solutions or easy answers. One day I find myself
marching with other unionists for fair wages, and that
puts me side by side with cops, and the next day, I am
marching to protest the death of Amadou Diallo or
Patrick Dorismond and I can feel the hatred directed
at me by the very same cops, this time on the other
side of the barricade.
I think the value of this list is what we can learn
from it that we can use in present and future
struggles.
At this point in my life, as a 54-year-old
grandfather, I don't think I can stop my activism if I
haven't stopped it by now. Keep the debate going, but
lets not forget to look for workable solutions to
problems we face now.
As for David Horowitz, it is okay not to like him. I
didn't care for his views when he was a leftist,
and I certainly don't care for his views now that he
is a rightist.
Part of what I do now is trying to keeps tabs on what
the far-right is doing and passing that information
along to my friends. If it is true that Horowitz has
indeed received $500,000 in funding from Richard
Mellon Scaife, that was alleged earlier here, then I
must say I am very impressed. Obviously, pandering to
the right is much more rewarding than sucking up to a
Huey P. Newton.
Chuck
www.zlatkinletter.com
www.rightiswrong.com
__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Send instant messages with Yahoo! Messenger.
http://im.yahoo.com/
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Sat Jun 17 2000 - 21:13:07 CUT