In late November, I received my copy of the Fall 2020 Newsletter published by the San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace. If you are not aware of Mothers for Peace, I invite you to visit their website and get acquainted. I particularly invite you to read their Fall 2020 Newsletter, which you can do by clicking that link.
As regular readers of this blog know, I am always asserting that the American Revolution resulted in the creation of a system of democratic self-government, and that this system of government - despite its many failures - remains our greatest hope and opportunity. I am also fond of saying that if we want to preserve and maintain our system of self-government then that means we have to get involved ourselves.
Easy to say! Sounds right. How, though, do we actually do that? Let me suggest that the San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace provide us with a helpful model. More than helpful, actually. Inspiring!
Check out that newsletter! You will discover that the ordinary women who first came together in 1973 to confront the state and federal governments about the safety of the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant, have now become bona fide experts. They know what is going on. They continue to learn about and get directly involved in even the smallest details of the plant's ongoing operations, and now they are involved in the decommissioning process.
In our complicated and complex world, it is ever easier to conclude that we, as ordinary citizens, are not able to understand and deal with the complexities of the society and the economy we have created, and upon which we all depend. We all too often conclude that "the government" is something quite separate and distinct from "we the [ordinary] people," and that this must necessarily be true because of the complexities with which our government has to deal. We all too often think, in other words, that our government, is - and inevitably must be - beyond our effective question or control.
The Mothers for Peace provide us with an inspiring proof that this doesn't have to be true:
Image Credits:
https://mothersforpeace.org
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thanks for your comment!