ec49a6f8   
   From: et472@ncf.ca   
      
   On Sun, 14 Feb 2010, "jordy" wrote:   
      
   >   
   >   Joan Baez was one of the performers at the White House recently,   
   > performing for President Obama and his family in celebration of civil   
   > rights during black history month... Baez is a supporter of President   
   > Obama, and it is certainly is a great cause... but Baez is so   
   > vehemently anti war... wouldn't she feel discomfort singing for a   
   > president that is in the midst of 2 wars, and has sent many more   
   > troops to Afghanistan, nobel peace prize notwithstanding?   
   >   
   Has she shown indications of that in the past?  I don't think Nixon   
   ever invited her, so it's hard to tell.   
      
   Technically, she isn't just anti-war, she's a pacifist.  Certainly she   
   defined herself that way decades ago. That takes out a lot of the   
   rhetoric.  Pacifism isn't so much about what others do, but what you   
   do. It lives by itself, it doesn't need others to follow.  Others follow   
   because they stop to think about why someone might deliberately go to   
   prison against war, or why they'd walk for months for peace.  The truth of   
   peace is strong in itself, and even if nobody else follows, it may make   
   others think about things.   
      
   She might have gone because she'd rather set a moral standard for the   
   President to follow, by being there it causes him to think about pacifism   
   more than if she stayed home.   
      
   Or maybe she went because other people were going, people who had so much   
   power fifty years ago.   
      
   The problem with the Vietnam War was that it gives an odd view to war.   
   There was a a lot of over the top reaction to that war, which wasn't in   
   the realm of the pacifists but in the masses. That creates the illusion   
   that one has to be that way to be against war.   
      
   Anyone who ever met Philip Berrigan would know that he could go to jail so   
   many times because he knew his way was right.   
      
       Michael   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)