This was my posted response to a NYTmes article about the proliferation of hidden cameras in stores (In Bid to Sway Sales, Cameras Track Shoppers) and how this has become acceptable as good business practice:
I sometimes laugh (or cry?) when I recall the concern folks once had about the future as depicted in Brave New World and 1984. That was dictatorship, control, and the Soviet Union (for the ‘50s and ‘60s). Now it’s happening here, and most everyone takes it for granted. A half century ago, there would have been outrage. How truly these books now appear to be predicting our future. Details differ (changes in technology and where the power resides), but the trajectory is unmistakable (post #49).
Here are some other ideas for consideration:
We are citizens of the world, and our country is this earth.
“America is a vast conspiracy to make you happy.” John Updike
“Yes, we love peace, but we are not willing to take wounds for it, as we are for war.” John Andrew Holmes
Does good always triumph over evil? Only because the winners get to tell the story.
The following story serves as a reminder that a particular witness can continue to be a witness far beyond the event itself:
Yesterday I spent the whole day at Media Court House undergoing jury duty selection for a murder trial. When the judge and attorneys queried me about my answers to some of their form questions, my explanations may have
helped de-select me, as follows:
What was the crime that I had been convicted of? “Carrying the message directly to Christian employees of Lockheed-Martin that making weapons that could destroy the world was not a practice that Jesus could approve of.” What were the crimes that I had witnessed? ”Workers for peace being arrested at the Pentagon and Lockheed-Martin (the world’s largest military producer) for their peaceful civil disobedience.” What was the maximum penalty for the crime for which I was convicted? “$500, but after hearing my defense at trial, the judge reduced my fine to $100 and court costs, said he essentially agreed with me except for my method, and shook my hand.” Why had I said that could not promise to follow the judge’s instructions? “If there were a significant conflict between the law and my conscience, I would have to follow my conscience.”
Oh, and I wore a button (next to my juror button) that said “Support the troops. Bring them home.”
So, no jury duty — makes me think of Arlo Gurthrie and Alice’s Restaurant. For those of you not old enough (or over-the-hill enough) to know better, that is an iconic song of the 70’s, putting in verse how a Thanksgiving Day misdemeanor (dumping trash illegally because the dump was closed) resulted in the unintended consequence of his being found unfit for the Vietnam draft because of his criminal record.
Here’s part of an email that I sent Fran regarding this year’s Good Friday demonstration at Lockheed Martin, followed by her reply. In reading this, we should remember that there are many ways that we can contribute to peace. Each person has their own gifts, which should be used as best they can. I am grateful that Judith has chosen to use her gift to work for peace in this manner:
Hi Fran,
An interesting thing happened at the demonstration. A lady approached me and gave me her card, Judith Joy Ross. She is some sort of artist and photographer,with a gallery in Bethlehem, PA. Her plan is to create a photography book of peace activists. She was carrying a huge wood camera that looks like my antique one, except bigger and heavier. There was a suitcase for the film – it takes flat 8×10 separately-cased wood sleeves of b&w film. I signed a release, and then she took much of her film case on me. I was holding a large gong, which I rang at the reading of each name of a Pennsylvanian solder killed in Iraq. Have I acquired the look that I feel? You can google her at “Judith Joy Ross” and see what you get.
. . . . . . Fran’s Response . . . . .
Oh, Sweetie, she does amazing work. Had a write up in The New York Times just last year; exhibitions and permanent displays at major museums. Wow!
I was recently interviewed about my war tax resistance for a JusticeTalking episode on NPR. I had questioned my role in doing this interview, because I have felt that the more heroic actions of some of my friends are much more powerful in the media than what I do. I came to the conclusion that my special opportunity was to be “everyman” and to present my experiences in such a way that war tax resistance could be understood as something everyone should think about and that anyone could do. This might sound like WTRlite, but this particular program is directed to listeners who likely have no knowledge of WTR and no expectation that the topic would arise in this context.
For example, when Margot Adler asked if I was a Quaker, I confirmed that I was, but emphasized that most war tax resisters were not Quakers, and that this was an issue that concerned many different people. For me to have been identified simply as a Quaker would have tended to marginalize the issue to “those Quakers.”
Perhaps I should have expanded on my response when Margot asked if I was afraid of the IRS (particularly seeing that I was speaking so publicly). I replied, without any hesitation “Margot, I am not afraid.” If I am following my conscience, and doing what I must do to be myself and to have any integrity, being afraid is hardly the issue. It would be much worse, if not nearly impossible, to act otherwise.