Ken's (Pro)posterous Posts

Timely Poem by Bill Knott: Testament

TESTAMENT

You know the fable

How a soldier’s bible

Kept in his jacket pocket

Stopped a bullet

But that catechism

Born to foster schism

Also stopped his heart his

Mind from finding peace

He would not have had need

Of such a shield

Nor would his blood have been

Thrilled to kill someone

Of another faith

If in that book he had not first read death

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As we enter yet another war (because we need a trinity thereof at a time), this poem should resonate strongly.

Bill Knott is part of the twitterverse: you can find him at @notknott

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War Talk (part 1)

I remember borrowing this book years ago and being both moved and amazed at the artistry behind Roy's words and, more importantly (maybe) the incisive analysis coupled with intellectual honesty. Once upon a time, the artistry of her words would have been enough...but that's a different topic.

Now, as the third (or fourth) book post bar-exam, I'm re-reading it with a bit more pause and within the context of the Bush years having come to their superficial end (though the policies remain entrenched and enshrined by the "opposition" party".

There were moments where the observations/realities of the Indian sub-contintent transfer to the realities in the United States of America. One such instance is:

"Why isn't there a peace movement?" Western journalists ask me ingenously. How can there be a peace movement when...peace means a daily battle: for food, for water, for shelter, for dignity.

A statement regarding impunity by politicians resonates here given the impunity of Bush, Rumsfeld, most bank CEOs and CFOs, Timothy Geithner, and, given the status of Bradley Manning and Gitmo torture, President Obama:

Resignation? Have we lost all sense of proportion? Criminals are not meant to resign. They're meant to be charged, tried, and convicted.

Finally, the issue of nationalism and fascism is addressed or examined thusly:

It's disturbing to see how neatly nationalism dovetails into fascism. ....nationalism -in its many avatars: communist, capitalist, and fascist- has been at the root of almost all of the genocide of the 20th century.

Each time you defend the rights of an institution, any institution (including the Surpeme Court), to exercise unfettered, unaccountable powers that must never be challenged, you move toward fascism. Fighting it means fighting to win back the minds and hearts of people. It means keeping an eagle eye on public institutions and demanding accountability. It means putting your ear to the ground and listening to the whispering of the truly powerless.

I wonder if our movements will continue to be decimated by economic comforts of the first world. By sinecure (yes, I'm slightly guilty of liking my comfort), or the proverbial seat at the table.

Or, like the alleged immigrant rights movement in the US, will we always allow organizational power to trump people power? Will we here the voices of those directly impacted or will we continue to listen to learned and "objective" talking heads? How do we take those spaces back and put the voice of the impacted at the center...even if that means that our brand isn't visible...or if the person steps outside our externally imposed messaging frame? More importantly, as someone who has suckled at the teat of the NPIC for almost 20 years, how do we wean ourselves so that these voices can come through?

As Roy says, "Heaven help us make it through the night".

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Thanks for my book back Julie...

About 2 years ago, my friend and co-worker Julie Su asked me if I could think of any suggested readings for a class she was teaching at the nexus of people's lawyers called Northeastern (http://www.northeastern.edu/law/). She was teaching a course (all the while juggling being an amazing mom, mentor to dozens of folks, fighting SLAPP suits, and being litigation director at a civil rights organization) and, naturally, I was glad to suggest some chapters from Rights on Trial by Arthur Kinoy and lend her my copy of this hard to find book.

This last Wednesday, en route to legal observe an action on skid row, I was lucky enough to run into Julie and check in with her for a while. For all I know, it could have been our farewell because she's been appointed to serve as the Labor Commissioner for the state. As we were catching up, she returned my copies of Rights on Trial and biographies of Paul Robeson and Medgar Evers which belonged to my son but I had lent her for her children. As we were talking, I couldn't help but feel that I was in the presence of an Arthur Kinoy...moreover someone who lives some of the words from the chapter she assigned:

"...people's lawyers must never forget their underlying purpose: to utilize their skills in order to assist people already in motion to care forward their own struggles." "..the lawyer's activity is rarely, if ever, the primary means of winning the struggle. Victory has to be achieved by the people themselves, through their own organizational strength and activity, and the legal work of the people's lawyer must be directed primarily toward helping to create an atmosphere in which the people can more readily function, organize, and move forward."

As I reflect on most of my lawyer friends, not acquaintances who happen to be lawyers, I think most of them have been through the Kinoy-Su school of law. One of my best friends, Betty, captured this practice and sentiment in her essay, "Law and Organizing from the Perspective of Organizers: Finding a Shared Theory of Social Change". http://www.lapilj.org/2008-09-hung-article.html

It's funny, Julie was one of the reasons why I decided to work for my employer and, semi-jokingly, I'd always call her the conscience of the organization. Now I'm frightened that that appellation might be true.

It's also timely that she returned that book because, as I've been reading Dancing with Dynamite by Benjamin Dangl, I've come across so many passages where I tell myself, "I'm glad a lawyer didn't get in the way of these movements." I intended to clip some of the more amazing statements from that book, but for now, I think this post should stand alone.

The Kinoy book can be found here:

http://amzn.com/0964188708

Medgar Evers: http://amzn.com/087067594X

Paul Robeson: http://amzn.com/0870675524

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