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| Deep Commitment By Murray Rosenblith Felon
for Peace: THERE ARE PROBABLY several hundred people who played important roles as organizers and activists during the Vietnam War period. These people were pivotal in creating a movement that mobilized millions to protest the war and, eventually, forced the United States to stop fighting in Vietnam. Chances are you’ve never heard of most of these people. Jerry Elmer is one of them. Elmer became active in high school and his life in protest took him on an interesting journey through the War Resisters League, the Catholic left, the American Friends Service Committee, and numerous coalitions and projects. He participated in draft board raids, public speaking engagements, and organizing large and small antiwar demonstrations. Elmer’s story is full of anecdotes about many of the activists he encountered along the way—both well known and unheralded. It may not mean much to members of the general public, but WRL members can appreciate that he lists Jim Peck, David McReynolds, and Igal Roodenko as people who supported and inspired his early activism. Elmer takes the title for this book from his felony conviction for destroying draft board files. Like many occasionally arrested for protests, he collected his share of misdemeanor charges. He also publicly refused to register for the draft but was never indicted or penalized for this action. Rather than list arrests as if they were merit badges, Elmer expounds at length on the moral and political basis for his actions, giving full descriptions of the reasons he decided to become a deeply committed pacifist early on in high school. He then shows us the different ways his perspective led him to live out his politics. Elmer’s meticulously recounted details are both a strength and weakness of his story. He gives us valuable insights into much of the hard but necessary routines that helped build a strong antiwar movement. He also shows us how valuable campaigns like the Tiger Cage vigils in the early 1970s, material aid for Vietnam after the end of the war in 1975, and the Nuclear Freeze campaign in the 1980s were built from the ground up. Unfortunately, in many places Elmer’s narrative heads off into side trips where we learn more than we need about who was sleeping with whom in the Catholic left or some of the personal idiosyncrasies of the activists he encountered. When discussing political philosophy, Elmer’s tone tends to have an overbearing sense of earnestness that detracts from the more interesting story. The irony of the book’s title is that, after many years in the peace movement and an often interrupted academic career, Jerry ends up graduating from Harvard Law School and becoming an attorney in Rhode Island. He hasn’t given up being an activist; if you read this book you will understand it is an essential part of his being. But you may also come to see that the study and practice of law in the service of peace and justice is the appropriate place for the scrupulous and dedicated Jerry Elmer. Murray Rosenblith is the executive director of the A.J. Muste Memorial Institute. He became involved in the peace and social justice movement in high school in the 1960s. |
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