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News :: Peace |
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Peace Activism: A Matter Of Language |
Current rating: 0 |
by Robert Salladay
(No verified email address) |
07 Apr 2003
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Anti-war Patriots Find They Need to Reclaim Words, Symbols, Even U.S. Flag from Conservatives |
"Just to clarify . . . we support the troops," Pearl Jam lead singer Eddie Vedder told a Denver audience last week after getting booed and told to shut up for criticizing President Bush on stage. Some in the crowd, perhaps soothed a bit, cheered.
In the current minefield of political expression, many peace activists are creating their own version of patriotism, whether it's carrying U.S. flags at anti-war rallies or slapping "Peace is Patriotic" bumper stickers on their cars. "Support the troops, not the war" has become a mantra at anti-war demonstrations nationwide.
The use of nationalistic symbols and language by the peace movement occurred during the first Gulf War and even before. But as the current Iraq war continues, a new movement is emerging to wrestle patriotic words and images from conservatives -- and allow mainstream Americans to feel more comfortable about participating in anti-war demonstrations.
UNDERGROUND PUBLIC RELATIONS
An underground public relations campaign has begun to introduce patriotic language into left-leaning groups, said George Lakoff, a UC Berkeley linguistics professor and author of "Moral Politics." Conservatives have "pretty much commandeered patriotic language," said Lakoff, who has been working with peace activists and others to craft a new strategy for progressives.
"It became very clear right after Sept. 11 there was no patriotic language for progressives, that all the symbols had been taken over," Lakoff said. "This was a great shame because progressives are just as patriotic as anybody else. That is, progressives are loyal to the ideals of the country."
Working Assets, a San Francisco long-distance service and credit card company that supports liberal causes, recently put up 100 signs on Washington, D.C., buses that read,''Support Our Troops. Bring them Home Now." The group also placed that slogan on billboards in Houston, Detroit, Manhattan, Los Angeles and San Francisco. The Houston billboard prompted a few death threats, the company's president said.
"We are trying to take back the language," said Michael Kieschnick, president of Working Assets. "Our message is that it's time for those who are anti-war to make it clear that we care just as much about our soldiers as those who are pro-war. . . . It really isn't some tactic."
GLOBAL SYMBOL
Many peace activists, however, are bothered by the use of patriotic symbols and are raising questions within their own movements. Some are internationalists who believe the entire U.S. government is immoral, not just Bush and the war itself, and they have chosen the globe or an upside-down U.S. flag as their symbols.
The disparate groups of anti-war demonstrators have tried to remain united about the issue, however angry words have been exchanged between demonstrators who have brought U.S. flags to protests and others who view them with suspicion or derision.
Jeff Paterson, a former U.S. Marine corporal who was discharged for refusing to fight in the first Gulf War, said the "support-the-troops thing is really the best PR they can put on an unjust, immoral and illegal invasion."
"Personally I think the image of the earth is the best symbol to express our solidarity," said Paterson, 34, a San Francisco peace activist. "We're all in this together, and looking at the world through an American lens is actually in the long run not beneficial."
Maya Jones, another Bay Area peace organizer, said the U.S. government used the symbolism of the U.S. flag after Sept. 11 to "manipulate people's grief and really capitalize and commodify grief, and used it as a symbol of a united people. This flag does not represent unity."
CONSERVATIVES SUSPICIOUS
Conservatives, too, are suspicious when they see U.S. flags at anti-war rallies and draw parallels to the "traitors" who protested during the Vietnam War. Demonstrators have been labeled communists and "terrorist-supporting leftists" by a vociferous and vocal conservative wing.
Kathy Wood with the Washington, D.C., chapter of Free Republic, a conservative group, said she witnessed a protester rip down a U.S. flag that was being held by a Vietnam veteran at a recent anti-war demonstration. She said the protester ripped the flag apart.
"That is what they really feel about the American flag," Wood said. "This is just a charade to make them look more mainstream and get their message out."
Indeed, patriotic messages from peace activists are commonplace. A marquee at the Grand Lake Theatre in Oakland reads: "Honor Our Troops, Bring Them Home,
Peace Is Patriotic." A convoy of 100 hybrid vehicles converged on San Francisco in January, some carrying "Real Patriots Drive Hybrids" bumper stickers -- a message that environmentally friendly cars wean the U.S. from Arab oil.
Kieschnick said Working Assets recently offered a service for protesters to choose between a half-dozen different protest signs available on a Web site. Those signs were then printed on placards, attached to sticks and made available at protests.
He said the most popular sign requested was the "Support Our Troops. Bring Them Home Now." That is evidence, he said, that a large segment of mainstream America does not support the war and feels uncomfortable with the "hard left, down-with-America approach."
MORAL DISTINCTIONS
The "support the troops" message opens up questions of the moral distinctions between the U.S. government that wages a war and the soldiers who fight in it. This has been a debate for decades, particularly during the Vietnam War when the treatment of individual soldiers came into focus.
Not In Our Name, an activist group in the East Bay, decided the best response during this war is to support any soldier who refuses to fight, without making any official "support the troops" statement.
Peace activists overwhelmingly say U.S. soldiers should not be personally attacked for fighting in Iraq, even if the anti-war movement believes the war itself is immoral.
Andrea Buffa, a peace activist in San Francisco, said most of the soldiers in Iraq "are 19 years old and they are being ordered to do this by a lot of people who have never fought in a war. So I hold the leadership who are doing this accountable."
"Fundamentally," said John Bostrom, 58, a consultant from Staten Island, N. Y., who has been debating the issue online with other peace activists, "support-the-troops is a cry of fear and despair that our kids are going to die. That is the emotional level. Who could possibly oppose that?"
©2003 San Francisco Chronicle
http://sfgate.com/chronicle/ |
Comments
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Patriotism Is More Than Flag Waving |
by Dave Zweifel
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
07 Apr 2003
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I've always been suspicious of flag wavers since the time about 30 years ago a fellow Wisconsin Army National Guard member was fired because he had to take two weeks off at a busy time of the year to attend annual training with his unit.
The citizen soldier worked for one of those national franchises that display their "patriotism" by flying a huge American flag in front of their business. Apparently flying a big flag was enough of a commitment to America's military; giving an employee a couple of weeks off to train was going too far. Heaven forbid it might actually cost a couple of bucks.
The feds, of course, quickly reminded the owners that it's illegal to fire people for their commitment to the nation's military and the Guardsman was given his job back. He quickly found work with another company, though - one that didn't fly a huge flag, but stood by its military people.
I remember the irony of it all because it was back during the Vietnam War days when this newspaper was one of the leading critics of that war, constantly editorializing that we needed to pull out and let the Vietnamese determine their own destiny. Many of the "professional" patriots during those days harangued us with letters and phone calls, questioning our loyalty to America and insisting that our editorials "proved" we were "traitors" to the United States.
Meanwhile, those traitors at The Capital Times Co. not only gave those of us in the Guard or Reserves the time off, they paid our full salaries besides. I didn't even have an obligation, having served my two years of active duty and two years in reserves long before, but I got the time off and my pay nevertheless.
I tell this not to pat The Capital Times Co. on the back, but to point out that there's a lot more to patriotism than meets the eye.
For example, I got a charge out of that support-our-troops demonstration in Monona the other day where several of the participants insisted that those who demonstrate against the war are unpatriotic. The truth is there may actually be a heckuva lot more patriotic folks demonstrating against the war than in some of the pro-war demonstrations.
Demonstrating for a cause, after all, is quite American. And that goes for both the anti- and pro-war demonstrations. The founders of this nation expected the citizens to make their views known in many different ways.
My personal belief is that this war, like the one in Vietnam all those years ago, is a serious mistake and regardless of its outcome will do us more harm in the end than good. The world had a jump on containing Saddam and we could have isolated him and caused his eventual downfall by other means than all-out war.
Meanwhile, we've unleashed a rat's nest of anti-American sentiment and put at peril innocent U.S. citizens around the world for years and years to come. And, as bad, we're spending billions of dollars that could have gone instead to help solve the many problems we have here at home - cash-starved schools, old folks who can't afford to pay for their drugs, families and children without health insurance, the long-term health of Social Security, to name a few.
Does that mean that I don't support our troops? Of course not. Now that they've been sent to battle, placed in harm's way, and are bravely doing the job they've been asked to do, they need every bit of help this nation can give them to end this thing as quickly as possible.
It will never change my mind, though, that their commander-in-chief and his entourage have made a bad mistake.
Copyright 2002 The Capital Times
http://www.madison.com/captimes/ |
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