Re: AN OPEN LETTER TO RALPH NADER

["Sheria Reid" <sheria@ncjustice.org>]

I am black.  I am only the second generation in my family that has had the
right to vote.  My parents exercised their right to vote under duress and
with the risk of bodily harm or death.  My grandparents and their ancestors
were not accorded this basic right of citizenship.  I am appalled by the
notion that anyone would voluntarily give up a right that people fought for,
suffered for and even died to achieve.  This mumbo jumbo about withholding
your vote to demonstrate that there is no significant choice offered by our
two major political parties is just a cop out.  Certainly the rhetoric
sounds good; refuse to participate in promoting the corporate machinery,
move on to greater refusals--the draft, war etc.  Let's have a reality check
here. Changes in the status quo have not simply resulted from millions of
people coming together to challenge it.  Black people did not simply gather
together a few million folks and obtain civil rights.  This year marks the
50th anniversary of Brown I.  Think how different this decision might have
been if the composition of the Supreme Court had been different?  After all,
the same body decided Plessy v. Ferguson approximately 60 years earlier.
The constitution didn't change but those interpreting it did.  Roxie's point
about the appointment of justices to the highest court in the land
resonates.  Certainly public will was a decisive factor in pushing civil
rights to the forefront of our collective conscience but legislative action
(remember the Civil Rights Acts of the 60s and 70s?) and our legal system
gave that public will the power of law.  Keep in mind that the millions who
supported the civil rights movement were not the majority.  I shudder to
think what my life would be now if my civil rights and liberties were
dependent on public will rather than codified in law. Other changes that
benefited the rights of individuals also did not simply spring forth from
public protest.  I believe in the power of the people but I do not believe
in apathy.  I saw nothing in the open letter to Nader that suggested any
practical steps to effecting change.  The writer appeared to advocate what
amounts to sort of revolution by the people.  I seriously question whether
such a power change is even possible in a republic such as ours; and even if
is, most modern day revolutions do not result in a replacement of the
existing structure with a better structure, but rather a new status quo that
is often more repressive than the previous one.  Please understand that I am
not speaking of the use of civil disobedience as a legitimate tool in
changing the social and political order; rather I'm speaking of the chaotic
and anarchic disregard for existing legal, social and political structures
in the name of change.

If you want to rearrange the furniture in a man's home it is much easier to
do so if you convince him to invite you inside rather than throwing stones
at his window and demanding that he redecorate.  Exercising the right to
vote is the equivalent of taking advantage of your invitation to get inside
the political structures that shape this country and do some redecorating.

Sheria Reid
Education & Law Project Director
NC Justice & Community Development Center
224 S. Dawson St.
P.O. Box 28068
Raleigh, NC 27611
(919) 856-3192 phone
(919) 856-2175 fax
www.ncjustice.org <http://www.ncjustice.org>

Share your opinion! Do we spend too much, too little or just the right
amount of money on public education?  Go to
http://www.ncjustice.org/edlaw/index.html
<http://www.ncjustice.org/edlaw/index.html>  and follow the discussion board
link to tell us what you think.




-----Original Message-----
From: arn-l-owner@interversity.org
[mailto:arn-l-owner@interversity.org]On Behalf Of George K Cunningham
Sent: Monday, March 29, 2004 12:56 PM
To: arn-l@interversity.org
Subject: Re: [arn-l] AN OPEN LETTER TO RALPH NADER


Roxie,

I think you and Noam are completely wrong and I urge you to get behind Dave
Stratman's movement of mass refusal.  Just don't vote.  That is by far the
best solution.  Like the new Urban Outfitter t-shirt says, "voting is for
old people."  Not voting will make you feel young again.

George K. Cunningham
University of Louisville

>>> CMWUNCHEEL@aol.com 3/29/2004 11:59:54 AM >>>
Dave -
    Do you (and Quan and Eric) honestly believe that there'll also be no
difference whatsoever in the types of Supreme Court and lower fed. ct.
appts. that
Kerry or Bush will make?? Come ON. Illusion of democracy or not, it does
matter very much which one of these guys wins b/c of the very real
influence -
which will reach into the next couple or few generations - of the Justices
(and
other fed. judges) on everyday lives and on society as a whole in this
country.
(That's also the most impt. reason, IMHO, Ralph needs to butt out. But
you're
kidding yourself if you think he will. My erstwhile hero of all time has
become nothing more than an attention-seeking egomaniac). If you want to let
Bush
pack the Supreme Ct., then by all means stay home on election day and
encourage as many others as you can to do so.
Roxie
P.S. Denial ain't just a river in Egypt.

In a message dated 3/27/04 1:53:18 PM, Newdem@aol.com writes:

<< I think that this letter will be of interest to those in the antiwar,

anti-education reform, labor, or revolutionary movements.


Dave Stratman

Editor, New Democracy

newdemocracyworld.org

5 Burr Street

Boston, MA 02130

617-524-4073

******************

AN OPEN LETTER TO RALPH NADER

March 27, 2004


Dear Ralph:


Before you declared your candidacy, many people, including The Nation

magazine and other former supporters, called on you not to run for President
in 2004,

fearing that your candidacy would lead to George Bush's re-election.


I am writing now to call on you to withdraw from the race, but for reasons

having nothing to do with George Bush or John Kerry.


You said on "Meet the Press," when you announced your candidacy, that

"there's a democracy gap" in our country, and I agree.


You said, "There's just too much power and wealth in too few hands,

increasingly giant corporation hands, that have no allegiance to our country
or our

communities other than to control them or to abandon them. They have taken
over

Washington."


I agree.


You said, "Washington is now a corporate-occupied territory."


I agree.


You said "corporations are saying no to the necessities of the American

people. They're saying no to health insurance for everyone, no to tax
reform,
no to

health and safety standards, no to stopping corporate welfare into hundreds

of billions, no to straightening out the defense budget..."


I agree.


You said you believe that Al Gore would have invaded Iraq. You said, "He

would have. I think he was a hawk. He may have done it in a different way."
You

said, "[Gore] and Clinton got through Congress a regime-change resolution as
a

pillar of our foreign policy."


I agree.


You said, "The corporate government remains in Washington, whether it's

Democrats or Republicans. The military industrial complex, as Eisenhower
pointed

out, is getting bigger and devouring half of the federal budget's
discretionary

expenditure.... Washington is corporate-occupied territory, and the two

parties are ferociously competing to see who's going to go to the White
House
and

take orders from their corporate pay masters. So...they may be different in

their rhetoric. But in the actual performance these corporate interests and
their

political allies are taking America down. They're taking our country apart:

massive poverty, massive child poverty, massive consumer debt, environmental

devastation....So, basically, it's a question between both parties flunking:
one

with a D-, the Republicans; one with a D+, the Democrats."


Again I agree*though I think this understates the destructive role both

parties play in American life.


The question is, given the situation you describe*a government dominated by

money and in the hands of corporate power; a duopoly of power between
Democrats

and Republicans, who answer to the same corporate paymasters, both of whom

are tearing our country apart and taking it down; a mammoth, out-of-control

military-industrial complex with a vested interest in maintaining the
situation

dominating the government*how can we change it?


I agree that it is important to raise these issues and bring them to public

attention as widely as possible, and I applaud your effort to do that.


But you are as aware as I am that you stand zero chance of winning the

election.


Even more to the point, you must be aware that no significant change in

American society has ever come about through the electoral process. Change
has only

come about through determined direct action by millions of people. It was

mass action that organized the first industrial unions in America through

sit-down strikes and the forcible takeover of factories and mines. It was
only

courageous mass action by millions of black people and their white
supporters
which

resulted in the achievement of civil rights for blacks. It was only the mass

action of millions of Americans in the streets and the frequent refusal and

rebellions by American soldiers in Vietnam and the heroic struggle by
millions of

Vietnamese that brought that war to an end.


The very reasons you offered that impelled you to run*a society and a

government dominated by big money and powerful corporations*make change
through the

electoral process more implausible now than ever.



The electoral process has traditionally been used by the corporate
paymasters

who rule our country and who own both parties to provide the illusion of

democracy, divide the populace over secondary issues, and persuade people to
place

their hope in the corporate party of their choosing. The electoral process
is

used, in other words, to prevent people taking matters into their own hands,

organizing their own countervailing power, and challenging corporate

domination.


The massive movement against war in Iraq before the war began shows that

there is a huge swath of people in our country who oppose the disastrous
path
on

which corporate government is taking us. There is a fault line running
through

American society which divides the war-makers from the people. The electoral

process is meant to disguise that fault line, hide its significance from

people, and once again force them to choose between two corporate parties.


I am writing to ask you not just to resign your candidacy, but to do

something far more activist and effective.


New Democracy, the organization of which I am part, has called on American

voters to engage in MassRefusal/2004 (massrefusal.org) We are calling on
people

to refuse to vote in this presidential election, this sham vote over which

representative of the corporate parties will rule us. We are calling on
voters to

announce to their friends and to the world that they refuse to take part in

fake democracy and that instead they are determined to fight for real

democracy, that they are determined to take our country into their own
hands.


I am asking you to join us in MassRefusal/2004. I am asking that you
announce

to the world that you are resigning your candidacy because what's needed now

is not another candidate but a mass movement to challenge corporate power. I

am asking that you throw in your lot with us. I do not ask that you
discontinue

speaking out wherever you can on these issues. Far from it. I ask that you

redouble your efforts to expose corporate domination of American life
wherever

and however you can.


We envision MassRefusal/2004 as only one of many steps in strengthening the

existing movement to change the direction of our society. It is a step that

millions of people can take together that makes a strong political statement
at

little individual risk. We expect to follow it with other refusals: refusal
to

allow the military to recruit our children; refusal to enlist in the
military;

refusal to fight endless wars; refusal to work for Empire. We hope that many

who engage in MassRefusal/2004 will come together to plan what to do next to

build the movement.


The situation in our country which you have so penetratingly described is

extremely serious; on this, I know that we agree. President Bush has
promised
a

future of endless war; candidate Kerry has said nothing to indicate that he
has

any other course in mind. And how could he, really? As you have made clear,

the course of US government policy is not really in the hands of elected

officials but in the hands of their corporate paymasters.


The future is indeed frightening, but it is also full of hope. The

magnificent resistance of millions of Americans to the lies and war
propaganda of the

Republican/Democrat/corporate machine shows that we have a firm foundation
of

shared anti-corporate values on which to build for a second American
revolution.


I hope you will join us now.


For New Democracy,


Dave Stratman

Editor, New Democracy

newdemocracyworld.org

5 Burr Street

Boston, MA 02130

617-524-4073



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Date: Sat, 27 Mar 2004 13:44:12 EST
Subject: [arn-l] AN OPEN LETTER TO RALPH NADER
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