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Vermont Vigils I must contradict the statement attributed to Grace Paley in your article on Dave Dellinger (May-June 2004) about other Vermont antiwar vigils ending when the war in Iraq began. In Burlington, in northwest Vermont, the vigil continues to this day: At the top of Church Street, from 5 to 5:30 p.m., five days a week through winter blast and summer rains. I know this from personal observation and occasional participation. I have also heard there are vigils still being held in the eastern part of the state, in cities such as St. Johnsbury and Brattleboro, but have not personally observed them. —Ed Everts After the Conventions I enjoy every issue of the NVA, but it seems those writers who invoke Gandhian principles for disempowerment of the system (“After the Conventions,” July-August) tend to limit themselves to generalities. We have specific salt-march and spinning-wheel tactics now, appropriate to the present time and place. Nor should lack of a general agreement on strategy stop us from effecting these personal strategies immediately. In Abe Lincoln’s day, corporations were less of a behemoth because individuals were raised in a tradition of self-reliance. Most people raised food, baked bread, gathered fuel and assembled their own garments. The mass influx into cities created a mass dependence on corporate supply lines. City-dwellers with a bit of spare room today, however, can devote that space to spinning, weaving or other self-reliant pursuits that will remove their dollars from the corporate chain. Rural people with more space have more options (such as making biodiesel fuel and farming with draft animals). If we want to quit feeding the beast, however, we must be willing to tear ourselves away from the computers and TVs and VCRs and retrain ourselves to live and work in the here-and-now. In doing so, we unite with humanity past and present, worldwide, who have attempted an honest and respectful coexistence with our world. Waiting for politicians or movements to lead us into the promised land has not proven successful. Unity is not a natural human condition, but we can work together if we’ve established the common ground by making the very personal decision to repudiate the consumer mentality. Withholding taxes and raging against Bechtel and Halliburton while we’re living on corporate groceries and fuels will not get us far. Please keep up the good work, and let’s focus on the earth life cycle, the one thing that doesn’t flip-flop. —Slim Wolfe Just a note to say that I found Joanne Sheehan’s “After the Conventions” (July-August) particularly good. Depending on what happens, it might be useful to revise it to “After the Elections...” as a booklet with a more complete bibliography since not everyone has the 2002 calendar. —Rene Wadlow |
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