Back OpEd News | |||||||
Original Content at https://www.opednews.com/articles/Focus-on-Peace-A-Peace-Mo-by-Darren-Wolfe-110306-321.html (Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher). |
March 6, 2011
Focus on Peace: A Peace Movement for Everyone
By Darren Wolfe
The wars abroad are less popular than ever. Now is the time to give people that are not on the left in their thinking a place to go to engage in activism for peace. Hopefully, Focus on Peace will fulfill that vital role.
::::::::
Like most libertarians I want to advocate for peace. I've worked with the left's peace movement and have been frustrated by the fact that they insist on attaching their social and economic agendas to their activism. They then strangely say they have an "inclusive" peace movement. An excerpt from "An Inclusive Antiwar Movement?" illustrates this point well:Libertarians are reaching out to the left to stand together for peace. (See "Organizing a Left-Right Alliance Against the War Parties ") This author approached the organizers of the October 16, 2010 peace rally in Philadelphia (See "Raising Eyebrows at a Peace Rally") at their planning meeting a few days before the event. There I was politely, but firmly, told that they were completely unwilling to change their agenda for future rallies to accommodate other points of view.On other sides of the political spectrum there are libertarian and conservative organizations that are anti war. However, while they advocate peace they are not, with rare exceptions, explicitly peace groups. They also don't, with few exceptions, hold peace rallies or engage in other kinds of peace activism.
When the left tacks on a social agenda to their antiwar coalitions that the liberty minded cannot endorse they tell us we're not welcome. We're not asking any of the organizations and individuals that are part of IAC or similar groups to change their advocacy. Their speakers can advocate all the same things they have before. Same with the signs they carry. All we ask is that the antiwar coalitions themselves be politically neutral so we can all join them in good conscience.
Darren Wolfe is the former Eastern Vice Chair of the Libertarian Party of Pennsylvania. He presently blogs as the International Libertarian http://www.theinternationallibertarian.blogspot.com/ His articles have also appeared in Ammoland.com, American Juror, OpEdNews.com, the Libertarian Penn, and the Nolanchart.com. News services such as the New York Post.com and Rational Review have published links to his work. Darren is the Philadelphia area contact for Come Home America (http://comehomeamerica.us/), a politically neutral peace movement. Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/IntLibertarian