I invite you to be a fly on the wall - here is an excerpt from an e-mail sent by a British social justice activist to her fellow activists. In it she asks that they re-evaluate their 'American' bashing.
>it was very good last Thursday night at Friends' House
meeting - I felt
>heartened that difficult things could be discussed with
respect.
>
>many thanks to all organisers.
>
>there was so much to say, but one thing that I think
wasn't said overtly
>enough in all the talk of 'america', is that many many
'americans' are as
>appalled by Bush, US foreign Policy and the sabre-rattling
as any of us.
>dissidents and dissenters in the US need support and
encouragement, just as
>dissidents in Yugoslavia did and do. I have just been in
the States for 2
>months and came back just before Sept 11th. I came back
full of anger and
>frustration with the dominant culture there...I came back
full of fury at
>the state of the corporate-owned media...and the corporate
dominance of
>almost every function of life...
>but I also met truly courageous people - activists,
campaigners and other
>folks in small mid-western towns and big cities - who risk
a lot in the
>face of extremely aggressive, racist and sexist police and
corporate
>tactics...
>
>Can we make a distinction between the State and the
people, just as we try
>to with Yugoslavia, Israel, Afghanistan....Britain ? Also,
by using the
>word 'America' all the time we are incorrect - America is
the whole
>continent (speak to central and south americans about the
use of this word
>only to mean the US). We should more properly use the
term U.S, or USA.
>
>One more thing - I feel utterly sick at Blair's gung-ho
imperialism, and
>thatcher's before him... - we are implicated tremendously
in this whole
>business and its history from top to toe. In fact, due to
empire, we set up
>most of the tensions that exist as background to the
current situation. I'm
>for unilateralism - in my lifetime will I see Britain
separate itself off
>from these values ? Greenham, Menwith, Southall Black
Sisters,
>Ploughshares, wib-uk and many others are such an
inspiration to me for this
>reason.
>
>just some thoughts.
Original: A Brit pleas to go easy on US activists