Street roots., February 17, 2017, Page 7, Image 7

Inspiration to create societal change
Progressives’ agenda is
daunting, but two books
empower us to take action
“Demand the
Impossible! A
Radical
Manifesto”
by Bill Ayers
“Struggling for
the Soul of Our
Country” by
Preston
Browning Jr.
.to create alternatives, to reach for the
spectacular, and to get busy with projects of
reframing and repair, movement-making,
agitating, educating, community organizing,
and action.”
The extent and immediacy of pressing
BY JOE M A R T IN
— —
issues demand the attention of all citizens.
CONTRIBUTING COLUMNIST
We can and must be educated and
t’s the stuff of daily news. Christian
empowered to take on these big challenges.
When properly informed and organized,
Parenti, author of 2011’s “Tropic of
• common people hâve the strength and
Chaos”, refers to the “catastrophic
convergence” of poverty, violence and climate intelligence to make a more socially
egalitarian and ecologically balanced world.
change. Here in the Northwest, a person
with good health, a decent job, family, friends Do not despair and be tricked into thinking
otherwise. This is the theme of Ayers’
and an affordable residence can feel safely
encouraging book.
removed from the stresses that upend other
Another erudite elder, Preston Browning
lives both here and in other placés. That
Jr. is a professor of literature and longtime
sense of security can be deceiving.
political activist. He refers to himself as a
I say deceiving because this is earthquake
Christian socialist, a designation he defines
country. And do not forget the Naval Base
in a broad ecumenical sense. “Struggling for
Kitsap - especially the Bangor site - with its
the Soul of Our Country” is Browning’s gift
Trident subs and formidable nuclear arsenal.
to his grandchildren ,and he hopes that it
All told, our locale is a still verdant corner of
“will strengthen their determination to
the planet. There’s no shortage of water. It
. can be easy to get inured to the media parade struggle for Earth’s health and long life as a
home fit for human beings.”
of violence and other disturbing events. But
Browning’s books is more wide-ranging
anyone paying the slightest attention knows
than Ayers’ offering. It is like taking an
the lamentable list of pressing issues:
informative and lively course from a
perpetual wars, racial and ethnic strife,
passionate well-read college professor, which
poverty, unemployment, massive
is what he is. Browning shares the fruit of
displacement, migration and homelessness.
I
A ro u n d and w ithin is th e sp e c te r o f
ecocatastrophe.
.
__
W hile m any se e m indifferent, lo ts of
conscientious people are engaged politically
decrying social injustice and environmental
destruction. They give of their time and
talent Some risk imprisonment, bodily harm,
even death. Witness the courageous
determination of the thousands who have
thus far successfully resisted the Dakota
Access Pipeline. The same goes for those
who have railed against nuclear power and
weaponry. A raft of books, articles and film
documentaries chronicles threats to ecology
and human survival. There are plenty of
causes. Choose to do something about any
one of them, and you will be occupied for a
lifetime.
Bill Ayers once embraced a violent
revolutionary faith. He and his cadre hoped
to topple the American government when the
U.S. was embroiled in the madness of the
Vietnam War. Eventually he assumed a
different path. Now a retired professor, Ayers
remains a leftist immersed in activism from a
more measured but no less impassioned
perspective. In that spirit, he has authored
“Demand the Impossible! A Radical
Manifesto.” It is an urgent call to informed
and vigorous political action aimed at creating
a transformative ethos capable of generating
economic democracy, social equality and
ecological viability.
Ayers invites the reader to imagine
genuine change and vibrant ways to confront
political malaise. After analyzing rampant
militarism, unbridled consumerism,
economic inequities and an arrogant financial
industry, constructive responses can follow.
He writes, “Questions like these might
inspire quixotic daydreaming or curious
conjecture, but what if instead they stirred us
billions of our brothers and sisters on the
Earth for a just, peaceful and sustainable
planetary society - and answer the call of the
cosmos itself.”
As he delineates the outline of a hopeful
and radical shift in our collective will and
consciousness needed to avoid disaster here
and elsewhere, Browning admits the
enormity and uncertainty of the task. He
writes, “I find it hard to avoid the conclusion
that America is headed inexorably toward a
crack-up of some sort or, at the yery least,
transformation into
a society ruled by
oligarchs and
military brass.” Are
"Qwestloas Hfee these nog 1st
we there yet? If
not, we are well on in sp ire t a b e t ic daydream ing ®r
the way.
carleas ceafectnre, b a t w hat If
Both books
instead they s tirre d as to
appeared before
create alternatives, te reach fo r
the November
the
spectacular, and te get busy
election. Both
w ith projects e l re fra in in g and
resonate in their
call for awareness
re p a ir, m ovem ent-m aking,
and action.
a g ita tin g , educatin g, co m m n n lty
The time has
o rg a n izin g , and a c tio n /"
arrived for a
BILL AYERS,
galvanized
AUTHOR OF^EMAIMD'THE IMPOSSIBLE!*
movement of
citizen activists to
decades of se rio u s reading and reflection on
arise and face
c r itic a l i s s u e s o f o u r t im e . T h r o u g h o u t , h e
b r a v e ly t h e f o r c e s
m akes his p rogressive convictions and
e n d o rse m e n ts clear. H is p ro se te e m s w ith
of militarism, greed and exploitation.
Economic democracy, racial justice and
environmental sanity won’t fall from
the sky. From the
bottom up,
energized
citizens must
educate,
organize and
then mobilize
to make the
world anew.
Ayers and
Browning will
be there.
references to secular thinkers as well as
spiritual visionaries, and to books
and journalism relevant to
multiple and immediate '
concerns.
“First and foremost, we
need a vision, a picture, if
you will, of what a society
fit for human beings would
look like,” he writes. “No
ililM
rigidly structured
1
blueprint, mind you, no
infallible Marxist
> «
prescription for
creating a workers’
paradise, but a set of
ideas and principles
on which a more
just,
compassionate,
peaceful, and
sustainable
global society
might be
built”
In his
fashion,
Browning
echoes the
adjuration of
Ayers when he
asserts “the peril and
the opportunity of our
moment in history demand
thinking so bold, so creative
that only ideas once dismissed
derisively as ‘hopelessly utopian’
can answer the longing of
a É
ILLUSTRATION BY JON WILLIAMS
|
Courtesy of
Street Roots sister
paper Real Change
News, Seattle.