Ruben: What you write is true but not the whole truth
At 11:48 PM 3/29/2001, you wrote:
>While much of what Ruben criticizes the anti-Vietnam war movement for is
>true, it is far too generalized and seems to indicate that he never
>really became a part of it after he returned from Vietnam.
I think what he says is a crock. Sounds like he showed up at a love-in or
two, surveyed the crowd and came to this grand conclusion.
Organized against the war? Was in the street battles, did he did beat-up
and arrested like a lot of folk. Did he spend endless days and nights in
meetings, cranking out flyers, going door to door, blocking induction
centers, being followed and harassed by the government.
To paint the whole movement with a few people he heard of like
Horowitz ugh or a few upper middle class whites he saw hanging around
rather than the tens of thousands of folk who knew quite well and put it
forward that it was a racist war and that the poverty and oppression in
this country was just as important battle as the anti-war movement was is
pure trash.
To take what the media said about the Sixties and try and throw it back
from a so called progressive view is just wrong if not more insidious.
> >
> > MODNOTE: Most people have eyes but do not see, and ears but do not hear.
> > I saw most "Sixties Radicals", as pigs, then. I see most of them, as
> pigs, now.
> >
> > I started organizing against the Vietnam war, shortly after returning from
> > it, in the Sixties, and saw the lack of understanding and commitment most
> > anti-war movement "leaders" had, to the cause. Granted, I was brainwashed,
> > into joining the Marines, to fight and die for my country, but I quickly
> > learned, after a few short hours in boot camp, that I screwed up, big-time,
> > and I have been trying, to make amends, ever since.
> >
> > The Peace Movement was the "fun thing to do" for many bourgeois California
> > college students, during the Vietnam era, and even today. I joined the
> > Marines, in 1965, after graduating from high school, in Southern
> > California, so I had and have a much different perspective, in terms of
> > fighting for peace and other worthy causes, as most of you are surely
> > aware, by now.
> >
> > As a Chicano, I instinctively related, to the type of poverty, racism and
> > oppression the U.S. was subjecting the Vietnamese people to, very much.
> > Most anti-war protesters were totally unaware of this aspect of the war,
> > and of the true nature of the military and America's racist agenda.
> >
> > Most of the anti-war protesters knew nothing about what it is like, to be
> > poor and oppressed, due to the color of your skin, all your life, and their
> > leaders didn't usually care, to hear about it. I would often have to force
> > the issue of racism onto White liberal and leftist agendas, as these
> > leaders struggled, to keep our U.S. Minority demands out of the picture,
> > altogether.
> >
> > I personally saw the huge disproportionate numbers of Non-White "grunts"
> > (infantrymen), who were sent to the frontlines of Vietnam, to die or be
> > maimed for life, while soldiers mostly from the middle- and upper classes
> > literally partied, in the rear. Mostly U.S. Minorities and poor Whites were
> > mowed down, in Vietnam, along with many more innocent people whose only
> > "offense" was being born Vietnamese.
> >
> > This is what I was trying to convey, to the Peace Movement, in the Sixties
> > and Seventies, but most of its White leaders had a much different agenda,
> > as we can see much more clearly, today. We not only had to contend with the
> > racism, in society-at-large and the military, there was no less racism
> > against us, in the Peace Movement, then, and even now.
> >
> > Nevertheless, American and Vietnamese people were still being slaughtered,
> > over there, so I put up with the racist leaders, in the Peace Movement, to
> > help stop the killing, in Vietnam, knowing full well once the war ended,
> > these superstar "radicals" would go back, to their ritzy lives of sex,
> > drugs and rock-n-roll, leaving the rest of us, to cope on our own, with the
> > poverty and oppression we were trapped in, all along.
> >
> > These scoundrels always tried, to act like they really liked us Non-White
> > activists, showing us off like trophies, to each other, as they struggled,
> > to become the main leaders of their packs. Most of them were children of
> > the rich and well-to-do, with the luxury of calling mommy and daddy for
> > money, transportation or a lawyer, after a drug bust, unwanted pregnancy or
> > whatever.
> >
> > David Horowitz is a good example of these so-called "Sixties radicals,"
> > along with Tom Hayden, Jerry Brown and many other racists, once labelled
> > "leftists" and "revolutionaries," by the establishment. The establishment
> > is now showing off these "born-again racists," like trophies, to prove how
> > right and superior White racists were, all along.
> >
> > Even with their long hair, fancy speeches, free drugs and loose ways, I
> > always saw these so-called radicals of the Sixties and Seventies, as the
> > racists they still are, and will always be. Most people do not become less
> > racist, as they age, they become more racist, as Horowitz is proving.
> >
> > Non-Whites see the same problem, in today's environmental movement, where
> > most "White liberals" and "White radicals" would rather fight for anything
> > but against the poverty and oppression their parents and other elders are
> > subjecting millions of Americans to. These children of the rich and
> > well-to-do come for sex, drugs and rock-n-roll, just like some of their
> > parents used to do, at mass demonstrations of the past.
> >
> > Today's "radicals" come, in droves, to Northern California, where I now
> > live; not so much, to protest the rape of our redwood forests, as to have
> > "fun, fun, fun!" In the meantime, their parents and other elders, also
> > labelled "radicals" in their youth, are exploiting, oppressing,
> > incarcerating and killing millions of poor and Non-White Americans to, in
> > every-which-way they can get away with, across the country.
> >
> > Many of today's "radicals" will come out of the closet, to capitalize on
> > their racist views, in the future, just like David Horowitz is doing, now.
> > There is more racism in America, now, than ever, but more ways to hide it,
> > too. paz, ruben
> >
> >
John Johnson
Change-Links Progressive Newspaper
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