I'm not always right when I think I am and I don't always know I'm right when I am.
But when I'm wrong, I generally know it, painfully so. As Bea Lillie used to sing,
 "and the worst part of all
 you know in your heart,
 you've only yourself to blame!"
In my experience that's what makes folks really defensive: Knowing they've done or said something really stupid without being able/willing to admit it and get on with it.

We moved the weekly Saturday vigil up from 12-1 to 10-12, to catch the June 24th, 'July 4th' Parade, which featured a celebration of militarism, violence for national gain, and jingoism. Our protest signs read, "Stop Bush's War", "Who next will die for Bush's Lies?" and "just say NO to the Warfare State and culture!"

The crowd was neither supportive nor particularly hostile. One man with an umbrella attempted to block our view of the parade and theirs of us but I stepped up in front of him; an old rider in a car waved us away, dismissively, and that was that. A sailor walking by in his whites stopped to say "We need a change!" Amen! And after the parade a tall man strode across Market St. to say he'd seen our signs from across the street and was grateful for our presence. "This must be a hard town to protest in!" You don't know the half of it, sir.

Toward the end of the two hour ordeal, a woman walking past us stopped and chided Dale for daring to spoil the atmosphere of the parade.
"You ought to be ashamed!" she cried.
"I'm not!"
"You ought to be!"
"I don't think so!"
"It doesn't matter what you think!"
"I think it does!" he replied.

Dale is a veteran of numerous such encounters from Mississippi in the 60s to a succession of other protests against ignorance and bigotry. He's a master of minimalist, self-assertive response. The woman, being unable to shame him, was so pissed she stalked off and wrote a vituperative Letter to the Editor of the Sunbury Daily Item, full of rationalization and contumely against we three.

My wife urged me not to read the toxic letter, which of course I then skimmed. I had an impulse to respond, then decided polemic is not the answer! The woman's defensiveness arose because she couldn't deal with the idea her husband, a colonel we learned in her letter, might have wasted his life and career, to say nothing of all the other soldiery and others killed and maimed under his command, in pursuit of intimidation, death and destruction as our nation's way getting its way. That's such an awful, depressing consideration, I can imagine it might have made her multiply testy. Knowing I was right, I needn't proceed further. It was hers to stew in.   29 VI 06

SDI 30 VI 2006 p. A9 Letter to Editor
Free to Protest
"Regarding the letter to the editor about Lewisburg's parade in Wednesday's paper: How ironic that one can delight in the celebration of American freedom and independence and, at the same time, bash American citizens for exercising that freedom and independence." ...  James Swartz, Lewisburg

Thank you, Mr. Swartz, for inadvertently making the point that overwhelmingly the parade celebrated NOT American freedom and independence, which I neither saw mentioned nor reference made to, but war, American militarism, violence, and the imposition of our values and practices on others. In that context the bashing of war protesters is logically consistent, if no more admirable.

SDI 3 VII 06 p. A6 Letter to the Editor
True Patriots
... "It seems to me that the people at the post office, as well as those who marched in the parade behind the banner 'Patriots for Peace' are very much like the people who, in 1776, wrote and signed the Declaration of Independence, standing up for what they believe is right."   Marian Brand, Watsontown

Thank you, Ms Brand, for vindicating my refusal to leap to my colleague's, Dale's, defense. The corroboration of others is far more effective and persuasive than personal self-defense.

There is a reason why the 24 June 'Independence' day parade in the 'burg was so focused on militarism, war and American hegemony. The name of the organization that sponsors the parade is NOT the Independence Day parade committee or anything associated with 4 July, but the Veterans Parade Committee. This fact fully explains why it's OK for veterans to protest but not for private citizens to do so; and why the emphasis is on militarism and American dominance not independence and freedom. In that context it makes perfect sense to bash war protesters who might cast doubt on the validity of intentional and deliberate violence as means and tool of our national foreign policy.  6 VII 06

The original critic's Letter to the Editor seems to have backfired for her. Every other day or so, someone writes to chime in on the appropriateness of our protest at the Post Office. I'm told the Union Standard Journal published an editorial alleging that our protest was 'disgusting' but I've seen no other support of that perspective. I'm sure it's there, but they seem to hesitate challenging a minority view. Being popular is too important.  It's OK with me that they were disgusted and one thought about it enough to respond.  That's their rights, too.  What must have been upsetting to them was that we rejected, implicitly and explicitly, what they were celebrating, not independence, nor its declaration, not freedom or the constitution, but their presumed right to make war on those who dare not to kow-tow to America and its policies.  If that was what upset them, well that's just fine by me.  By Jove, I think they've got it!

But Independence day is a national holiday that has been commandeered by a veterans' group and perverted to their own ends. The Vets have Memorial day and Veterans day. By making Independence day a celebration of vets, also, we exclude the majority of the population who aren't, won't and hopefully never will be Vets.

"I am tired of hearing 'they died for my freedom'. The bulk of my freedoms were won on the streets of America by civil rights
activists, feminists, civil libertarians and unions. The ones who
keep saying 'never forget' are the ones who are the quickest to
forget when the next war comes around." - Alexis Faskola

What most vets fail to recognize, recall or acknowledge is that the lives, not given by but, wrested from the military were NOT in service to our freedoms but in service to the business and political interests that currently run this country and actually threaten our form of government, the constitution, and our independence far, far more than any we have made war on in the last 60 years. A true patriot supports and defends the constitution, NOT any pissante regime and its pals currently in power.

There are a few vets who consciously acknowledge the folly of their participation in violence for national gain. It's a damn tough insight to have particularly if they were nearly killed themselves or lost friends and comrades. But it's the truth. We won't stop the insanity until those who have participated in it come to disavow it. Patriotism IS the last refuge of scoundrels. 7 VII 06

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Biography and additional articles by Axis Columnist John N. Cooper