2008 Woodie Awards
Activism needs to attract students, not bore them
Eric Fields
Issue date: 4/21/08 Section: Opinions
I'm writing in response to "Activism Requires More than Dance-Offs" by Burch Glover. I am with Students for a democratic Society and was quoted in Michael Stone's original article.
There are several factual claims (not opinions) that are simply incorrect. I'll address things in the order they appear in the article.
1. SDS did not write the first Sidelines article about us, and we did not "sign on" to it or even read it before it was published. I thought the article was good, but any complaint against it is not a complaint against SDS.
2. Glover claims we are "a bunch of C-average students." This is both juvenile and demonstrably false.
3. SDS does not have "ringleaders." We are fully democratic and non-hierarchical. This was described in the first article.
4. Our parents are quite diverse and are not all hippies who protested the Vietnam War. My parents were Baptist Republicans, for example. In any case, we have our own beliefs and reasons for the activism we do, independent of our parents.
5. We have clear and detailed ideas of what we believe. Some of the most politically knowledgeable and well-read people you will ever meet are in SDS.
The idea that we are ignorant or do not understand what we stand for could only be held if you have never talked to most of our members. If you do you may find that you disagree with us, but you will not find that we don't know what we're talking about.
6. Our members know varying degrees of privilege, but it is true that we are all quite privileged relative to most people in the world. In fact, most of our political position is built on an understanding of this privilege and the desire to build a more equal world.
7. Glover is correct that it is not 1969. This is one of the only facts he gets right in his entire article.
I will not address our reasons for opposing the war. Unlike Glover, we don't believe that arguments for or against the war can be given in a few sentences about Sept. 11. It is a complicated topic and to discuss it properly would take much more space than I have here.
There are several factual claims (not opinions) that are simply incorrect. I'll address things in the order they appear in the article.
1. SDS did not write the first Sidelines article about us, and we did not "sign on" to it or even read it before it was published. I thought the article was good, but any complaint against it is not a complaint against SDS.
2. Glover claims we are "a bunch of C-average students." This is both juvenile and demonstrably false.
3. SDS does not have "ringleaders." We are fully democratic and non-hierarchical. This was described in the first article.
4. Our parents are quite diverse and are not all hippies who protested the Vietnam War. My parents were Baptist Republicans, for example. In any case, we have our own beliefs and reasons for the activism we do, independent of our parents.
5. We have clear and detailed ideas of what we believe. Some of the most politically knowledgeable and well-read people you will ever meet are in SDS.
The idea that we are ignorant or do not understand what we stand for could only be held if you have never talked to most of our members. If you do you may find that you disagree with us, but you will not find that we don't know what we're talking about.
6. Our members know varying degrees of privilege, but it is true that we are all quite privileged relative to most people in the world. In fact, most of our political position is built on an understanding of this privilege and the desire to build a more equal world.
7. Glover is correct that it is not 1969. This is one of the only facts he gets right in his entire article.
I will not address our reasons for opposing the war. Unlike Glover, we don't believe that arguments for or against the war can be given in a few sentences about Sept. 11. It is a complicated topic and to discuss it properly would take much more space than I have here.
Viewing Comments 1 - 2 of 2
news across the neocon empire
posted 4/21/08 @ 3:32 AM CST
Erik doing the right thing is never wrong and you and SDS are doing the right thing.
People who condem the anti-war movement are a small minority of Americans who have been blindly following Bush and the Republican Party for at least 7 years now and probably more. (Continued…)
Sarah Cozort -- second year Masters Candidate, Discursive Studies
posted 7/03/08 @ 1:59 PM CST
Thank you for presenting the more accurate picture of MTSDS as a group more demographically heterogeneous than Glover states. His criteria left me feeling invisible save for the fact that I am actually a student. (Continued…)
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